As the 2025 MLB Draft quickly approaches, the Prospects Live team wants to make your life as easy as possible. In this series of articles, I'll be providing team-by-team analysis of their recent draft trends, their available draft capital for 2025, any areas of the draft they've heavily targeted, as well as a few names in this year's class that might fit into their historically preferred archetype.
Max Ellingsen
This analysis isn't sourced for the upcoming year, nor is it a guarantee the organization won't pivot from what they've done in the past. Simply put, this article aims to provide an in-depth look at teams and their recent draft classes to try and decipher trends that could help uncover players your favorite team might be targeting. It's far from a perfect science, but I've done my job if it makes things easier to follow on draft day.
New York Mets
- 2025 Bonus Pool Value - $5,465,900 (29th)
- Top 100 selections - 38
With just one pick inside the top hundred picks, the Mets are among the most limited in the upcoming July draft and can’t be expected to be major players in any capacity. If Mets fans are feeling disappointed about their lack of draft capital, I’d like to offer them one Juan Soto shaped tissue to wipe away their tears.
2024 Draft Overview
The Mets went with metric monster Carson Benge ($220,000 underslot) in the first despite some concerns over his violently steep bat path, and it’s paid off handsomely thus far as he’s already made his way to Double-A. Following up with Jonathan Santucci (slot) and Nate Dohm ($135,000 underslot), they secured two college arms with intriguing arsenals and plenty of upside. Draft eligible sophomore Eli Serrano ($40,000 overslot) came in the fourth while prep shortstop Trey Snyder ($850,000 overslot) was a splurge for them in the fifth. Though they weren’t able to land ninth rounder Jaxon Jelkin, they picked up a pair of intriguing arms in Will Watson (slot) and Tanner Witt ($75,000 overslot) to round out a draft that’s had promising returns thus far. They were able to find excellent value with their picks and trusted their models, prioritizing players that popped with unique EV’s and pitch shapes.
2023 Draft Overview
The Mets kicked things off with Colin Houck ($140,000 overslot) in the first round, a prep shortstop with a good combination of projection and polish. Next was Brandon Sproat (slot), Nolan McLean (slot), and Kade Morris (slot), a trio of college arms with intriguing upside. Wyatt Hudepohl ($40,000 underslot) went in the fourth while AJ Ewing ($190,000 overslot) was a nice grab in the Comp C round. Their biggest late round swing came in the form of high school shortstop Boston Baro ($510,000 overslot) in the eighth, though they did go overslot a few more times for both UNC Wilmington pitcher Brett Banks ($50,000 overslot) and prep third baseman Jake Zitella ($50,000 overslot). The Mets had a ton of picks in this one and took advantage of a thick middle section of this draft.
2022 Draft Overview
Armed with two first rounders after failing to sign Kumar Rocker in the prior draft, the Mets went with Kevin Parada ($222,000 overslot) and Jett Williams ($340,000 underslot) with their top two selections to beef up their up the middle talent. Blade Tidwell ($370,000 overslot) followed, however the Mets were again unable to sign a college arm and missed out on Brandon Sproat (for now, at least). They put some of that money to use on Jacob Reimer ($270,000 overslot) as a high school sign and Jonah Tong (slot) is looking like a steal out of the seventh round, however despite his longtime absence from the mound, selecting anyone named Zebulon Vermillion gets you a good grade on a draft class. If they would’ve been able to lock down Sproat this season their grade would’ve been that much better, but I’d say this was a solid if unspectacular class.
Early Round Demographics
They’ve gravitated toward position player talent at the top of classes, generally avoiding arms until the second or third round at the earliest and only taking stuff-first arms when they do. I’d be surprised if they stray away from that model in this draft, however with their poor draft position and a general dearth of college pitching in the middle rounds of this draft, it’s not out of the question they seize their opportunity when it’s afforded to them and snag an arm early.
Late Round Demographics
They’ve done well with grabbing arms in the later rounds and developing them into metric monsters, with the likes of Watson and Tong already looking like absolute steals from the later rounds of day two. They’ve dabbled with the idea of moving money around in the past, trying to snag a few high school talents with some savings earlier in the draft, however with as little draft capital as they have this season, I find that to be an unlikely avenue they pursue. They just don’t have the fire power to pull something like that off unless they were to go seriously down the board with their first pick, a strategy I find difficult to justify.
Names to Know
Brady Ebel, High School SS - The third player likely to go pro from the loaded Corona squad, Ebel has a nice blend of projectability and feel to hit that the Mets seem to like. I think he makes a lot of sense here.
AJ Russell, Tennessee RHP - This is the metric monster arm the Mets seem to be comfortable taking with their higher picks. Without a pick for another several rounds, I could see them breaking their status quo and jumping on an arm.
Jaden Fauske, High School C - Fauske has a buttery smooth left handed swing and a promising combination of hit and power that should get him drafted in the first fifty picks. A promising athlete with skills seems to fit the Mets’ M.O.
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