That’s Kelly Stinnett – the last Mets Rule 5 selection to stick with the Mets for an entire season.

With all the positive news coming out of camp about Mets Rule 5 selections 2B Brad Emaus and RHP Pedro Beato, I thought I would resurrect this post I wrote six weeks ago.

Initially, I thought these kids had literally no chance to stick, now I’m thinking both have a really good chance to stick.

Today, Terry Collins raved about how good Pedro Beato looked, and SNY’s Kevin Burkhardt said he has the best fastball in camp.

Brad Emaus has been the favorite for the second base job from the moment he was selected by the Mets at the Winter Meetings. Today, Collins reiterated that he considers second base to be an offensive position. That would seemingly rule out Ruben Tejada and Luis Castillo, and only Daniel Murphy stands in his way, but first Murph has to prove he can handle the duties and early reports don’t look promising.

So maybe, Sandy Alderson could do what no Mets GM has done in 17 years and actually have at least one Rule 5 selection make the Mets Opening Day roster and stay on it for the entire season.

For the rest of that story, read on.

Original Post 1/12 11:00 AM

Much like we all do every offseason, we enjoy looking ahead and try to figure out what the Opening Day roster will look like. We’ve all seen the projections and for the most part they are all in agreement on about 20-21 of those 25 players.

Two players I seem to see in just about every scenario are Rule 5 Draft selections Brad Emaus and Pedro Beato.

The thing about those two is that unless the Mets add them to their 25 man roster, the players would have to be offered back to their original teams for $25,000 dollars.

I decided to look at all the Mets Rule 5 Draft selections and found that most of these players “never” make the team and of the very few that do, none of them are able to stick around for very long.

Here is a list of players I came up with after some research.

2010 – 2B Brad Emaus, RHP Pedro Beato

2009 – RHP Carlos Monasterios (sold to LAD)

2008 – RHP Darren O’Day, RHP Rocky Cherry

2007 – RHP Steven Register

2006 – LHP Ricardo Morales

2005 – RHP Mitchell Wylie

2003 – LHP Frank Brooks

2000 – RHP Julio Santana

1999 – RHP Jim Mann

1996 – Ramon Tatits, Terrell Lowery

1994 – RHP Kevin Lomon

1993 – C Kelly Stinnett, C Charlie Greene

1992 – RHP Mike Draper

1990 – LHP Doug Simons

1989 – RHP Brent Knackert

1978 – OF Bobby Brown, OF Mike Howard, SS Bart Shirley, C John Sullivan

1968 – 3B Wayne Garrett

1967 – OF Clyde Mashore

1966 – LF Tommie Reynolds

1965 – LHP Bill Helper, Billy Murphy

1962 – LHP Don Rowe, IF Ted Schreiber

1961 – RHP Bob Moorehead

In the 50 years of Mets Rule 5 Drafts, the Mets have selected a total of 31 players.

It has been 17 years since a player selected in the Rule 5 Draft remained with the team for the entire season, that player was catcher Kelly Stinnett who was drafted in 1993.

Of the 31 players the Mets have selected, eleven of them actually made the Opening Day roster. Of those eleven players, only two of them lasted with the Mets for more than two seasons; Kelly Stinnett who I already mentioned, and Wayne Garrett who was the most productive Rule 5 Draft selection in Mets history.

So in 50 years only two Rule 5 Draftees actually made the team and lasted for more than a couple of seasons!

Slim odds indeed as Rocky Cherry and Darren O’Day found out a couple of seasons ago.

It’s too bad the Mets didn’t hang on to O’Day as he has gone on to be a very effective reliever and heaven knows we sure can use one right now.

As for Pedro Beato getting a bullpen spot, with the signings of Carrasco, Capuano, Buchholz, Bonser and now Tankersley, I think the writing is already on the wall given the fact that K-Rod, Parnell and Misch are virtual locks, and Igarashi and Acosta are still in the picture.

In the case of Brad Emaus, he has a much better chance of sticking, but only if he wins the second base job outright. The Mets already seem to be locked in at utility infielder after the trade for Chin-lung Hu, and by all accounts the Mets have every intention of giving Daniel Murphy a chance to win the job too.

Then of course there’s Luis Castillo who could just surprise everyone and have a solid Spring, and the very underrated Justin Turner who might be the organization’s best option against left-handed pitching at second base.

Don’t be surprised if Beato and Emaus both end up back with the teams they came from, because as you can see history is definitely not on their side.