There were only three mock drafts to cover this week. Baseball America and MLB.com released one on 5/24 and Perfect Game released on 5/23.

Baseball America has the Mets taking Zack Thompson. This is not the first one with that pick. Baseball America has had him as their pick multiple times now while Fangraphs had him as their pick last week. Fangraphs also said, “most expect a college pitcher to be the pick.”

The Mets seem to like the strategy of picking a player who they can sign under the slot value in the first round and get a guy who is over-slot in the second. They did that in the last two drafts. They got Anthony Kay under slot value in 2016 and signed some high schoolers later on. Thomspon fits that mold.

He throws four pitches, a fastball, slider, changeup, and curveball. None jump off the charts but all can be average pitches. His fastball is not an overpowering pitch either, it tops out around 96 MPH. The concerns with Thompson are due to his health. He failed his physical in 2016 otherwise he would have been a Tampa Bay Ray. Last year, he missed two months with an elbow injury. His workload is pretty high too. His coaches left him in for 130 pitches recently. It seems like the Anthony Kay recipe for Tommy John Surgery.

Thompson has been talked about ad-nauseam already. Teddy wrote about him a little last week and he’s been written about before that too. Thompson would be 22 for the start of the 2020 season and the rumors swirling around this pick seems to pick up steam every week.

Perfect Game has Alek Manoah as the pick. His brother, Erik, was traded by the Mets to the Angels for Fernando Salas. They also mention that the Mets have been all over Corbin Carroll.

Manoah has three pitches but his fastball is much stronger than Thompson’s. It can go up to 97 MPH. He’s still new to starting but his ceiling is still very high. He might not make it to the Mets so I will not be getting my hopes up on him. His delivery has a lot of moving parts. The key for him is repeating his motion. What jumps out is how big he is. The measurable is a Syndergaard like 6’6″ and 260 pounds.

(Video courtesy of Fangraphs)

Carroll is a high school outfielder who’s ceiling will be limited due to his lack of power. Think of him falling in the Brett Gardner category. He can hit and run but just not hit for much power. His swing reminds of Odubel Hererra. The Mets could be hoping to get him under slot as they did with Jarred Kelenic last year. Let’s just hope they don’t trade Carroll for Albert Pujols.

(Video courtesy of Fangraphs)