As a penalty for exceeding the top tier of the competitive balance tax by more than $40 million last season, the Mets dropped 10 spots in this year’s MLB Draft and won’t pick until outside the first round, at No. 32 overall.
But by not signing a free agent with the qualifying offer attached, the Mets got to keep their second-round pick at No. 56 overall.
With the draft just over two weeks away — it will be held July 9-11 — Post Sports+ recently caught up with Mets vice president of amateur and international scouting Tommy Tanous for his insights.
What do you see as the overall theme — if there is one — to this year’s draft?
Tommy Tanous: There’s some depth to this draft. I think if there’s a year you’re going to be picking outside the first round, it’s a good draft to do that with. There’s some college pitching depth, but there’s a lot of position player depth also. This draft is one of the better ones to have multiple picks like we do.
This is the first time since 2015 the Mets don’t have a true first-round pick. What kind of challenge does that present?
TT: You have to cast a wider net on scouting more players, and thankfully we have the resources to do that with our scouting and analytics department. But it’s definitely a wider net than when you pick No. 11 [as the Mets did last year], where you can narrow that search down and concentrate a little more. We were very conscious of that going into the season.
Is it fair to assume you don’t spend much time scouting the most elite players in the draft when you’re picking so late?
TT: You do want to make sure you have your bases covered. Every year someone’s going to slide — several players will slide for various reasons — and you want to make sure you’re not caught with a lack of information. But certainly you have to prioritize your time a little bit differently than picking in the top 10 or just outside that.
Steve Cohen has stated the need to find and develop pitching. With that in mind, if two players are close on your draft board and one is a pitcher, would he get the edge?
TT: It’s a little bit of a dangerous game when you start drafting for what you think the need is instead of the best players because the makeup of the team changes very quickly in baseball. Where you don’t feel like there’s a strength in the organization, all of a sudden there is a strength in the organization, so you have to be very careful in saying, ‘We need one aspect, so let’s draft it.’ Usually when you get the best players, you have a stronger farm system and you’re dealing from a position of strength.
What’s the impact of seeing a player drafted by the organization (Brett Baty) and another signed internationally (Francisco Alvarez) contributing this season as rookies?
TT: It makes everyone feel real good with homegrown players, and it re-affirms some of the things you’re doing well and the processes that you had in getting some of those players … but we still need to get much better doing it. You can’t rest on some success because there are a lot of teams out there having success.
But it’s a great feeling of accomplishment, and that goes for the player development. If [scouting] is getting credit for some players, those players have to go through player development and a lot of people — analytics, coaching staffs, mental skills — touch all of these players to get them finally to the big leagues, the final journey. … So I think it’s a sense of accomplishment for the entire organization, not just the scouting staff.
What stood out about Alvarez when you were scouting him?
TT: He was the strongest 14-year-old I’ve ever seen and maybe the strongest I’ll ever see. Just a mature hitter in the batter’s box. Very athletic in the batter’s box, also. But just his ability to consistently make hard contact when we put him up against pitchers six or seven years older than him. Physicality was overwhelming when you saw him.
Want to catch a game? The Mets schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
Seven wasn’t heaven
There isn’t a statistic more confounding for the Mets than their 1-6 record in the past seven games in which they have scored at least seven runs.
Even if the Mets were only 4-3 in those games, they would be sitting at .500 instead of six below as they prepare to open a weekend series in Philadelphia.
A look at the madness:
May 27: Rockies 10, Mets 7 — Justin Verlander allowed five runs in the second inning and a spirited Mets comeback was wasted by Jeff Brigham’s blown save in the seventh.
May 28: Rockies 11, Mets 10 — The Mets were ahead 6-4 in the fourth inning, but Tylor Megill and Stephen Nogosek flushed it.
June 8: Braves 13, Mets 10 — A gut punch by the Braves to complete a three-game sweep: Ozzie Albies hit a walkoff homer against Tommy Hunter in the 10th inning after the Mets had squandered a 10-7 lead in the seventh. Verlander lasted only three innings, and David Robertson blew the save in the ninth.
June 9: Pirates 14, Mets 7 — Really a non-competitive game beginning in the third inning, but the Mets scored five times in the ninth with help from two Pirates defensive flubs to reach seven runs.
June 18: Cardinals 8, Mets 7 — Carlos Carrasco got knocked around early, and Adam Ottavino surrendered a go-ahead homer to Nolan Arenado in the ninth after Tommy Pham’s two-run blast had tied it earlier.
June 19: Mets 11, Astros 1 — Max Scherzer pitched an eight-inning gem to ensure this scoring outburst wasn’t wasted.
June 21: Astros 10, Mets 8 — Possibly the Mets’ ugliest game of the season, filled with errors and base-running mistakes. Megill and Dominic Leone each allowed four earned runs.
Talk isn’t cheap
The night before the Mets opened their three-game series in Cincinnati last month, I was seated in a restaurant near the ballpark and couldn’t help but overhear the conversation from the next table, where multiple Reds players (I’m not going to name them) were discussing the team’s future and whether, hypothetically, the club would trade closer Alexis Diaz to the Mets for Francisco Alvarez.
This was before Alvarez had broken out for the Mets and as the Reds were sitting in fourth place in the NL Central.
As part of the calculus in evaluating such a trade, one Reds player considered how close Cincinnati might be to competing for the playoffs. This season wasn’t a consideration, and the player added, “We ain’t winning [anything] next year,” so maybe trading Diaz for Alvarez made sense.
So much for that.
The Reds are sizzling with an 11-game winning streak that has catapulted them into first place. While it’s still to be determined if the Mets will actually be buyers heading to the trade deadline, the NL Central-leading Reds probably won’t be trading their closer.
Credit: Source link
