Final 2013 Mets draft picks and signing bonuses

3 comments on “Final 2013 Mets draft picks and signing bonuses”

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  Brian Joura On August 27, 2013 at 12:54 pm

  The thing that jumps out at me most is that the Mets went under slot on their first five picks so they could give a $450,000 over-slot deal to Ty Bashlor in the 11th round. Bashlor went right around where he was projected to go and the Mets paid extra for the privilege. Meanwhile Bashlor has a 6.14 ERA and a 7.36 BB/9 as a reliever in the APPY.

  This is the second year under the pool allotment system and both times the Mets have gone cheap in the first few rounds in order to go wild on a lower pick. In theory, that would seem to be a good move in order to get a higher profile talent later in the draft. But when you’re getting equivalent BA value talent for the pick, and paying 5X the amount for the privilege, and the initial results are this poor – well, it’s easy to be critical.

  My preference would be to go over slot early, like the Mariners did with Austin Wilson on the second round, the first pick after the Mets went cheap with Andrew Church
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    Chris Walendin On August 27, 2013 at 1:25 pm

    Clearly the Mets internal amateur scouting saw something in Bashlor they valued highly (significantly more highly than BA). With the new CBA, the early teen rounds have become very interesting, since they represent the first risk-free opportunity to take overslot talent. It’s risk-free in the sense that if they can’t come to terms, they don’t lose out on pool money, like they would in rounds 4-10. The Mets’ draft approach in the first two years of the new CBA has relatively been consistent. A few other teams have looked to go overslot early, preferring to consolidate their draft pool into 2 or 3 players. Maybe that approach will ultimately be demonstrated to be better. But this being only the second year with these rules, it’s a little tough to praise or criticize the Mets’ overall approach too much.

    Last year, the Mets gave almost $375K to Chris Flexen in the 14th round (the analogue to the $550K they gave Bashlor this year, from an approach standpoint). Flexen struggled last year in his pro debut, but this year is 8-1 with a 2.09 ERA and in 69 innings has given up 53 hits and 12 walks while striking out 62. I’d give Bashlor at least one trip through fall instructs and spring training before taking his results (especially in just 14.2 innings of rookie ball) with anything less than a giant grain of salt.
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      Brian Joura On August 27, 2013 at 1:40 pm

      I agree with most everything you write above. The only things I would add are that Flexen was ranked by BA as #306 coming out of HS and was taken at #440 while Bashlor came out of JuCo. Struggling in the APPY at 17 is a different story than struggling there at 20.

      But we’ll see how this strategy works out five years or so down the road.