Tommy Tanous, Photo: NY Post

The Mets have multiple decisions to make on July 17th that will certainly affect wins and losses in the long-term outlook of the franchise. The 2022 MLB draft takes place on that day with the Mets having two first-round picks, their second-round pick, and a compensation pick for Noah Syndergaard signing with the Angels.

The Mets have the third largest bonus pool available of $13,955,700.

Here’s the breakdown of the picks:

  • #11 overall (comp for not signing Kumar Rocker) – $4,778,200 slot bonus
  • #14 overall – $4,241,600 slot bonus
  • #52 overall – $1,474,400 slot bonus
  • #75 overall (comp for Syndergaard) – $873,300

All four of these picks will happen on Sunday night on MLB Network and ESPN, with coverage starting at 7:00 p.m. ET. Four picks on Sunday night and another pick on Saturday that gives them five of the top 90 picks in the draft certainly puts a laser focus on an important time for Mets vice president of amateur and international scouting Tommy Tanous and Mets director of scouting Marc Tramuta.

Interestingly, Tanous and Tramuta have been in a similar situation before, 12 years ago with the Toronto Blue Jays when they had eight picks in the top 93. In a fascinating twist, the crown jewel of that draft was Syndergaard and now Noah is a reason why they have one of their top picks this year. Tanous joined the Mets the next year in 2011 and Tramuta followed suit after the 2012 draft.

Tanous, Tramuta and their group of scouts have done a fine job drafting over the years. In fact, the Mets have been one of the better teams in baseball in terms of getting value from the draft since 2010. Players drafted by the Mets since 2010 have accumulated the second most WAR —trailing only the Astros — according to research by Down on the Farm.

I should also note that we talked to Tramuta on our MMO Weekly show two months ago, and he raved about how awesome it is to now have Ben Zauzmer be a part of the draft process as well. Zauzmer, previously in the Dodgers organization, was hired in January of 2021 to be the Mets’ director of analytics and was quickly promoted to assistant GM in December of the same year. In the episode, Tramuta talks about the great balance the Mets use in the draft (and other areas of the organization) between scouting and analytics.

“You’d be foolish not to use that data to try to get an edge. That’s one thing Tommy and I and Ben have done, we talk about where can we find that next edge whether it’s scouting or analytics. We try to stay ahead of the curve,” Tramuta said.

This important draft will also be the first one under the watchful eye of GM Billy Eppler. While Eppler was known to be fairly hands on when he came to drafting with the Angels, the Mets have typically relied heavily on their amateur scouting department and more recently the R&D department to come up with a list of players they like.

Then lastly, before we get in to specific players the Mets might draft, it’s important to note that the MLB draft is like no other when it comes to what player the team takes. In the NFL if you need a franchise QB then you’re likely going to take one earlier in the draft and potentially plug him pretty quickly. In baseball, players go right to the minor leagues after being drafted and it takes most of the good players multiple seasons in the minors to be ready for the big leagues.

A good example of that is Pete Alonso. He was a college bat the Mets drafted after his junior season at Florida and he then took three minor league seasons before he was one of the best sluggers in the majors. That’s a pretty advanced college bat; it can take longer for players taken out of high school. It simply takes time. You don’t draft for need in baseball, you take the best player available. That’s an important note before we look at a few mock drafts.

Jace Jung, Photo by Elise Bressler, Texas Tech Athletics

Let’s take a look at a few players that have been mocked to the Mets recently by Baseball America, Prospects Live, ESPN and The Athletic.

  • Jett Williams, SS/OF, Rockwall-Heath High School in Texas – Baseball America says Jett has among the best strike zone judgement and defensive skills of all the prep players available. The 18-year-old has plus speed and is one of the shorter players at 5’8” expected to go early in the draft.
  • Brock Porter, RHP, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s High School in Michigan – Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and the Athletic all have Porter as the first pitcher off the board. Porter has been up to 100 mph and BA ranks his changeup as the second best in the draft among prep pitchers. The 19-year-old has an easily repeatable delivery that has helped him earn back-to-back Gatorade Player of the Year awards.
  • Jace Jung, 2B/3B, Texas Tech – Both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline have Jung ranked as the No. 9 player overall in the draft. The 21-year-old has shown a ton of power with 35 home runs in 117 games over the last two seasons and BA also ranked his strike zone judgment as the second best among college bats. His brother, Josh, is currently ranked as the Texas Rangers top position player prospect.
  • Daniel Susac, C, Arizona – The consensus No. 2 catcher in the draft behind Kevin Parada is a good sized dude at 6’4”, 218 pounds. The right-handed hitter (formally a switch-hitter) had a 1.012 OPS this past season as a sophomore for Arizona. Baseball America ranked him as the fourth best draft eligible defensive catcher among college players.
  • Justin Crawford, CF, Bishop Gorman High School in Nevada – The son of former big leaguer Carl Crawford is known for his defense and speed, ranked second and fourth respectively by BA among prep hitters. The 18-year-old is a left-handed hitter just like his four-time All-Star father.

Jett Williams

Here’s recent mock drafts from top outlets:

I think Keith Law best described the Mets’ potential for the 2022 draft: “They can do just about anything they want in the first round. They could go way over slot here if some big name slides to them, and then cut a deal at No. 14 to balance out their pool, for example. That means the Mets are supposedly on everybody, and anything is on the table. They could boost a college arm at No. 14 to pay for someone at No. 11, for example. Here, I’ve got Jung, presumed to be a top-10 pick most of the spring, going to them as a straight value pick, where they take a player who never should have gotten this far.”

There’s a ton of different ways the Mets could go with their first couple of picks and what they do will be remembered for a long time in what is one of the most important drafts in recent team history.

“The boring answer is you still take the best player available but having all those picks and the pool money there’s plenty of different scenarios you can play around with,” Tramuta said. “But you should stick with what you’re good at and be disciplined.”