Photo by Ed Delany, MMO

The 2019 Major League Rule 5 Draft has been completed, and despite some well grounded concerns, the New York Mets did not lose any players. This means the last time the Mets lost a player in the Rule 5 draft was 2015 when Matt Bowman was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Mets will keep Shervyen Newton, who is regarded by MLB Pipeline as the eighth best prospect in the Mets farm system. There had been some concerns he could be drafted by a rebuilding team like the Detroit Tigers or Baltimore Orioles, but both franchises opted to go in another direction in the draft.

Likely, Newton dealing with injuries and having a down offensive year played into the decision for teams not to draft him. If Newton does rebound and breaks out this year, the Mets will have a much more difficult decision about whether or not to protect him next year.

With Ryder Ryan and Matt Blackham also going undrafted, the Mets maintain their minor league bullpen depth. Both relievers generate a lot of movement on their pitches which has led to good strikeout numbers as well as some control issues. If they are able to better harness their pitches in 2020, they could prove to be impactful Major Leaguers either in 2020 or soon thereafter.

The Mets also held onto their catching depth with Patrick Mazeika going undrafted. Harol Gonzalez is also an interesting arm who has shown the ability to command all of his pitches making him a depth starter or an option for the long man in the bullpen. Overall, there were 11 players drafted including:

Detroit Tigers: RHP Rony Garcia (Yankees) & RHP Michael Rucker (Cubs)
Baltimore Orioles: RHP Brandon Bailey (Astros)
Miami Marlins: RHP Sterling Sharp (Nationals)
Kansas City Royals: RHP Stephen Woods (Rays)
Seattle Mariners: RHP Yohan Ramirez (Astros)
Cincinnati Reds: OF Mark Payton (Athletics)
San Francisco Giants: RHP Dany Jimenez (Blue Jays)
Philadelphia Phillies: INF Vimael Machin (Cubs)
Chicago Cubs: Trevor Megill (Padres)
Boston Red Sox: SS Jonathan Arauz (Astros)

As noted by MMO‘s Jacob Resnick, Megill is the older brother of current Mets prospect Tylor Megill. On that note, the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft will commence shortly, and the Mets have the room to select one player. Last year, the Mets selected three players including RHP Chris Mazza, who would make his Major League debut.