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Jarred Kelenic Gaining Momentum as the Mets Sixth Pick

By Dilip Sridhar

June 3, 2018 No comments

Fangraphs posted their mock draft late on Friday. In the mock, they featured a ton of notes and information, highly recommend you check it out.

They mocked Jarred Kelenic to the Mets at the sixth pick. This comes after Peter Gammons reported that one NL scouting director predicted Kelenic would go to the Mets. There have been some run downs on Kelenic that we have done already.

Here is what I wrote up yesterday regarding him:

Peter Gammons of the Athletic says one NL scouting director suggested the Mets will take OF Jarred Kelenic. Kelenic is a high schooler out of Wisconsin and will turn 19 in July. In terms of talent, Kelenic has a ton of it. The biggest reason he might fall is because he lives in Wisconsin and was not able to play much this past Spring due to the weather.

Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs mentioned that the Mets like Kelenic and many mocks say that he will be the pick if the Mets choose to go the high school route. Kelenic is the classic high school prospect who can do it all. He has an advanced approach too which helps and should add more power as he matures. The rumblings are that the Mets want an athlete and Kelenic is certainly that.

The Mets have been linked mostly to college bats in their mocks but Kiley McDaniel and Eric Logenhagen said, “We think this is Kelenic or Florida third baseman Jonathan India, with late and hard momentum to Kelenic here for slightly below slot.” While Kelenic isn’t a college bat, he has an advanced approach and can move quickly through the organization.

Fangraphs also mentioned Lenny Torres and Nick Sandlin as potential options in the second and third rounds.

Here is what I wrote on Torres back on May 17: Torres, a very young and local product. He only turns 18 in October and his upside in incredibly high. Baseball America ranks him as their 54th prospect. He is still getting used to pitching but his fastball has touched 98 this spring while sitting around 94-96. He still needs to work on his breaking pitches but in terms of a very high potential player in the second round, Torres fits the bill. He will be going to St. Johns in the event he does not sign but teams might come to an agreement with him before the draft.

Sandlin is a righty who was a reliever in college but has moved to the rotation recently. As a starter this year, Sandlin posted a 1.13 ERA in 95 innings with a 0.69 WHIP, 1.42 BB/9, and 12.65 K/9. Sandlin has a funky delivery and he can move quickly through the ranks as a reliever. He is ranked as the 150th prospect on Baseball America.

In the actual mock draft, Fangraphs has the Mets getting Kyle Isbel. Isbel is an outfielder at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and hit .357/.441/.643 this past season with 16 homers. The question is how much of that power is real and how much of that is Vegas aided. Baseball America believes in him enough to rank him as their 93rd best draft prospect and also mentioned he might need to move to second base (he played there before, don’t worry).

Video courtesy of Baseball America.