Photo: Allen Greene, Kingsport Mets
Here at MMO/MMN, we have selected Thomas Szapucki as the 2016 breakout player of the year. We had already chosen David Roseboom our Reliever of the Year and Amed Rosario as Player of the Year.
Thomas Szapucki was born in New Jersey but his family moved down to Florida when he was young. He graduated from William Dwyer HS in West Palm Beach, FL. His senior year season, he went 5-2 with a 0.78 ERA across 53.1 IP with 89 K’s.
These numbers along with impressive stuff, got him drafted in the 5th round of 2015 draft. After putting up poor numbers last year in his first pro season(15.43 ERA in 2.1 IP) in a very small sample size, Szapucki wasn’t on many radar screens coming into the 2016 campaign.
This year, he was simply lights out across two levels, playing for the Kingsport Mets and the Brooklyn Cyclones. He started the season with the Kingsport Mets and instantly became the team’s ace. Szapucki was able to miss a lot of bats this year with his fastball sitting in the mid 90’s and a slider with great movement. With Kingsport, he had a 0.62 ERA across 29 IP with 47 K’s while allowing only 16 hits. As a result, the young lefty lefty was named the Mets Sterling Award winner for the Kingsport Mets.
After conquering the Appalachian League, he was promoted to Brooklyn where he continued to perform well. He had an ERA of 2.35 across 23 IP with 39 K’s. His ability to strikeout batters this year was nothing short of phenomenal. Across both leagues Szapucki was 4-3 with a 1.38 ERA across 52 IP with 86 K’s, a WHIP of 0.88 and held opponents to a .145 average between the Cyclones and the Kingsport Mets.
He had five games with double digit strikeouts including his last three starts of the year for the Cyclones which set a new team record. His season was so impressive, he had other teams asking about him at the trade deadline. Unfortunately, his season was cut short in mid-August due to severe back stiffness. The organization decided to take a cautious approach with the young flamethrower.
Photo: Ed Delany
It was not an easy decision to select Szapucki as other players in the system also had breakout seasons. With that in mind, we have selected Tomas Nido as honorable mention. After struggling at the plate for most of his minor league career, Nido turned things around this year setting career highs in hits and home runs. He also set a career low in K percentage with 11.9%, a drop-off of from last year’s 25.7%.
The Florida State League, which he led in batting average, is notoriously known for being tough on hitters due to many of the deep baseball parks, as well as the competition from college players, who were selected in the top rounds.
Tomas Nido finished the year batting .320 with seven home runs, 46 RBI, and a OPS of .816. One thing that people never questioned about Nido was his defense, something he has prided himself on since Day 1. He continued his great defense behind the dish wielding a .987 fielding percentage and he threw out over 40% base runners attempting to steal a base.
This impressive season netted him the Mets Sterling Award for the St. Lucie Mets and the FSL batting title. Nido was drafted in the 8th round of 2012 draft out of Orangewood Christian School in Florida. As a result, he will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter and the Mets would be prudent to add this guy to the 40-man roster.
Other names discussed were Binghamton Mets infielder Phillip Evans, GCL Mets catcher/first baseman Carlos Sanchez and right-handed starter Andrew Church.
