Florida pitcher Brandon Sproat (8) throws out a pitch during an NCAA baseball game between Florida and Georgia in Athens, Ga., on Apr. 1, 2022. Georgia won 6-1.
News Joshua L Jones

The New York Mets selected right-handed pitcher Brandon Sproat with the 90th pick in the 2022 MLB Draft during round three on Monday afternoon. Sproat comes to the Mets out of the University of Florida. He is the fourth player out of Gainesville to be selected inn the draft.

Sproat was ranked as the No. 117 prospect on MLB.com leading up to the draft ad No. 84 on the prospects live list. He was previously drafted by the Texas Rangers in the seventh round in 2019 out of high school.

The 21-year old, 6’3” pitcher weighs 210lbs and has four pitches that are prototypical of a pitcher his size.

Sprout doesn’t come with a huge resume or history of having the most consistency or success, however his strong summer season with Team USA caught scouts’ eyes, however he has been known for being more of a wild card pitcher with mostly inconsistent performances. But when he’s on, he can be dangerous.

During his 2022 campaign with Team USA, his fastball averaged over 97 mph and touched between 97-100 mph as opposed to him touching around 95 mph during the fall. This spring he touched 100+ mph once. If he can clean up his command, his fastball has the potential to be more effective. During his shorter outings is when Sprout can get his fastball velocity higher. Prior to his spring campaign at Florida, scouts said if Sprout could get more strikes he could go early in the draft. And he just did in round 3 to the Mets.

While his fastballs may be where more of Sprout’s inconsistencies lie, his off-speed slider and curveballs are more consistent and are the strength for him. His slider touches 85—88 mph and breaks hard and misses bats. It commands well in the bottom of the strike zoe. His curveball is a softer pitch for Sprout. He also has a changeup that he can throw in the mix. The changeup is more of a ground-ball pitch for Sprout and touches high 80’s in velocity.  It needs more work, but Sprout has a full arsenal of pitches and has a potential to throw hard and get swings & misses.

Down the stretch for the Gators, Sproat was 5-0 with a 1.559 ERA and a .218 batting average in his last six starts. He finished the season with an overall 9-4 record with a 3.41 ERA, .251 BAA and had 82 strikeouts over the course of 89 2/3 innings pitched.

Sprout during his Gators career was 12-6 with a 3.91 ERA, with a .260 BAA, and 108 strikeouts. He threw 117 1/3 innings for the Gators.

Coming into day two of the draft, Sprout was ranked as the No. 7 best prospect left on the big board. He is the 20th Gators pitcher to be drafted in the first five rounds of the draft and the 55th pitcher to be drafted since Kevin O’ Sullivan arrived to coach the Gators inn 2008.