Biography:
Kevin Parada was born in Pasedena California in 2001. He attended Loyola High School in Los Angeles, California and finished his high school career with a .390 batting average, nine home runs, 66 RBIs, and 24 doubles. Considered to be a top prospect for the 2020 Major League Baseball draft, he went unselected, and enrolled at Georgia Tech to play college baseball.
Parada was instantly put into the starting lineup at catcher as a freshman in 2021. Over 52 games, he slashed .318/.370/.550 with nine home runs and 42 RBIs alongside twenty doubles and earned Freshman All-American honors. He played nine games in the Cape Cod Baseball League with the Chatham Anglers over the summer of 2021 and was also named to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team with whom he spent part of the summer.
Parada entered the 2022 season as a top prospect for the upcoming draft. On March 1, 2022, he was named the National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper after a week in which he went 12-21 with five home runs and 17 RBIs. On March 29, in a 17-3 win versus the Charleston Southern Buccaneers, Parada had his first ever two-home run game. After he hit his 26th home run of the season, he set the Georgia Tech single season home run record, breaking the previous record set by Anthony Maisano in 1990. He ended the 2022 season having played in sixty games, compiling a .361/.453/.709 slash line with 26 home runs and 88 RBIs.
Resume:
The Mets selected Parada with the 11th overall pick in the 2022 Amateur draft, using their compensation pick for failing to sign their top draft pick, Kumar Rocker, in the 2021 draft. In his brief 13 game debut with the Low A Port St. Lucie affiliate, he hit 3 doubles and a home run leading to an excellent .880 OPS.
Hitting:
Contact:
Collegiate numbers are hard to evaluate but his overall contact ability appears to be high with a good sense of the strike zone as well. Being a power hitter you can expect him to average about one strikeout per game but in his brief debut he also nearly averaged a walk per game as well. Power hitters who also hit over .300 are rare in baseball these days but Parada does have the makeup to make that reasonably possible.
Power:
Again, the collegiate numbers in 60 games put his power beyond the realm of feasibility. He looks like a 30 HR caliber player at the catcher position and might hit even more if he was playing at a less taxing position like Designated Hitter.
Speed:
No speed or base running chops to speak of. This isn’t a tool common to catchers who aren’t named J.T. Realmuto.
Fielding:
There is a lot of talk about Parada’s improved defense but this needs to be kept into perspective. This improved defense doesn’t make him the next Yadier Molina, it makes him appear to be good enough to be a league average defensive catcher (which is similar ratings to Francisco Alvarez).
Outlook:
At 21, Parada is already older than the Mets Top prospect and plays the same position. Parada will likely be assigned to Brooklyn, as a college player, and will be challenged by a ballpark that isn’t known for power numbers. The Mets are hoping he can progress to the majors with speed as his bat looks legitimate but Met fans have been spoiled by the speedy progressions of players like Alvarez and Baty and need to set their expectations accordingly. The earliest that Parada sees the majors is 2025 and at that point Alvarez should be the established starting catcher. His future role with the team is uncertain but his future offensive production looks very very promising.
Wasn’t Bryce Harper a JC catcher when drafted? Mats didn’t waste time with that part of his game.
Get him to Queens ASAP…OF/DH imo.
My hope – however unrealistic it may be – is to have Parada open the year in Double-A. A first-round pick from a major collegiate program like Ga. Tech shouldn’t be automatically assigned to A-ball the year after he’s drafted.
Let’s take two highly regarded HS players. Player A goes to the draft, Player B goes to college:
Year drafted. A goes to complex ball B plays legion/summer ball
Next year. A goes to complex/Lo-A while B is a freshman
Next year. A goes to Lo-A/Hi-A while B is a sophomore
Next year. A goes to Hi-A/AA while B is a junior
Next year. A goes to AA/AAA while B goes to … A-ball?
That type of progression might make sense for the majority of college-drafted players. But the best of the best, those who excel at the top conferences, should have a higher starting point.
I’m painfully aware that you can point to 1,000 examples of how this done currently with top draft picks. But just because it’s done this way doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it.
David agrees with your logic but I doubt the Mets will follow suit.
My hope is that he hits his way to AA quickly enough to make you happy.
I have really high hopes for Parada and loved this pick when he was drafted. My eyeball/heart (i.e. completely foundation-less) comp is Buster Posey. I realize the potential redundancy with Alvarez but if they both can hit, I think they will find a way to get both into the line-up regularly.
Its awesome to have quality minor league depth at C, a position we’ve had a problem with for some time. We also need to accept not every high prospect turns out to be a world beater when they get to the big leagues, esp so for catchers who have a lot on their plate with both sides of the ball. Awesome to see Parada next in line should Alvarez not pan out as expected. With the hope Alvarez does pan out, then having a high quality catcher stashed in the minors for trades would be extremely valuable.
Or having two catchers to split at catcher and DH. Catcher is a grueling position with aches and pains during the course of a season.
I love this idea and can’t think of another team doing this. Makes too much sense. Separately, I just read your interview, Metsense and thought it was fantastic – great to know the backstory behind all of your insights!
Alvarez seems like he is built for the catcher position and could play nowhere else. Maybe nose guard, circa 1960. On the other hand, maybe Parado could find a spot somewhere else, like 3B or LF. We’ll get to see more of him, I would hope, during Spring Training (which can’t get here soon enough!)
I like the idea of starting this type of draft pick at a higher level in the Mets minor-league system. Otherwise, you are placing a college player on the same team with a kid who just graduated high school. Those college years and experiences need to count for something, especially when you’ve used your first round pick on a position that you hopefully don’t need. We all know that there is a drastic difference between the low levels and the AAA and MLB experiences. And it would be easy to be overmatched at the plate. This does not seem to be the area of concern though, instead we again have a catching prospect who needs to learn how to catch better. I would argue that it’s the toughest spot in the lineup, being involved in every pitch of the game, but let him sink or swim at Brooklyn and see if he surprises us.