The New York Mets are heading to the postseason for the first time since 2006 behind a roster that is largely built on homegrown talent. The current roster projection for the Mets includes 16 players that they either drafted or signed as an international free agent. According to MLB.com the team with the second most homegrown talent is the St. Louis Cardinals who have 14 projected players. Here is how the current projected playoff roster breaks down.
Homegrown (16)
- Michael Conforto: 1st Round, 2014
- Jacob deGrom: 9th Round, 2010
- Lucas Duda: 7th Round, 2007
- Jeurys Familia: International Signing, 2007
- Wilmer Flores: International Signing, 2007
- Erik Goeddel: 24th Round, 2010
- Matt Harvey: 1st Round, 2010
- Juan Lagares: International Signing, 2006
- Steven Matz: 2nd Round, 2009 Pending start Thursday in Instructs
- Daniel Murphy: 13th Round, 2006
- Jon Niese: 7th Round, 2005
- Kirk Nieuwenhuis: 3rd Round, 2008
- Kevin Plawecki: 1st Round Supplemental, 2012
- Hansel Robles: International Signing, 2008
- Ruben Tejada: International Signing, 2006
- David Wright: 1st Round Supplemental, 2001
Free Agent (3)
- Bartolo Colon: 2 years, $20 million in 2013
- Michael Cuddyer: 2 years, $21 million, Forfeit of 2014 1st Round Pick
- Curtis Granderson: 4 years, $60 million in 2013
Trades (6)
- Yoenis Cespedes: From Detroit for Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa in 2015
- Tyler Clippard: From Oakland for Casey Meisner in 2015
- Travis d’Arnaud: From Toronto for R.A. Dickey in 2012
- Kelly Johnson: From Atlanta for John Gant and Robert Whalen in 2015
- Noah Syndergaard: From Toronto for R.A. Dickey in 2012
- Addison Reed: From Arizona for Matt Koch and Miller Diaz in 2015
The Mets have a built a strong farm system that they are starting to reap the benefits from including the two-headed monster at the top of the rotation in deGrom and Harvey. The bullpen has also seen contributions from players brought up through the Mets systems with the biggest coming from Familia who was arguably the MVP of the team after stepping up and becoming one of the best closers in baseball. They also got a huge boost from their talented rookie Conforto who finished 5th in SLG (.506) among all MLB rookies while playing stellar defense. Then you have Wright, who is the only player still around from the 2006 playoff team and has bounced back from what some thought could be a career ending injury.
Sandy Alderson used players his front office drafted like Fulmer, Meisner, Gant, Whalen and Koch as trade chips at the deadline this year to bolster the roster. Despite the importance of the players that Sandy traded for, the Mets will go into the playoffs with the smallest group (6) of contributors that came via trade. With the most important player Sandy traded for obviously being the mid-season acquisition of Cespedes who jump started what was one of the worst offenses in baseball before the deadline.
The Mets were tied with three teams for the fewest amount of players on the roster to come from free agency with only three. Colon has been the veteran presence on an otherwise very young pitching staff and has 29 games over the life of his contract. Granderson is another guy who you could argue for MVP of the Mets this year, he has been great since molding himself into a leadoff hitter and played a good right field.
Maybe the biggest wild card for the playoffs among the homegrown players is Matz who needs to prove he is healthy on Thursday in the instructional league to be included on the roster and start game four. He has started only six major league games but has been impressive in his short stint going 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA. He does have playoff experience as he threw a one-hitter for the Binghamton Mets in their Eastern League title clinching game.
