In the 19th round of the 2018 MLB Draft, the Mets selected right-handed pitcher Tommy Wilson from UC Fullerton.

The 22-year-old had a strong showing in his pro debut for the short season Brookyln Cyclones. In 22 innings he a 1.23 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 27 strikeouts, and held opponents to a .163 average.

Wilson grew up in Southern California in a town called Tarzana with three sisters, all older than him, and with his parents, Thomas and Caroline. Thomas Wilson might sound familiar to some of you, likely our older readers, because of his role as Biff Tannen in Back To The Future.

MMN: Growing up with three sisters, how influential was your family on your youth sports career?

Wilson: Very, very influential.  From a young age I was a pretty shy kid. So I didn’t really want to go out and do much and want to meet new friends so my parents just threw me right into baseball to meet some new friends and what not and I figured out I was pretty good at it so I stuck with it. Throughout the years my family has been coming to all the games. I can’t really think them enough for everything they’ve done for my baseball career. I really couldn’t of done it without them

MMN: Was there ever a time during high school or middle school that you didn’t think baseball was right for you?

Wilson: Not during high school. Definitely during college. I felt pretty confident with my abilities through high school. I got a scholarship to St. Mary’s University and I’m at my freshman year but it didn’t end up working out and I ended up going through the junior college route. I kind of figured out how to play junior college baseball and just kind of finish up and be done with it in life and get a job and what not.

Then I kind of turned it around and it was kind of out of nowhere. I started getting looks from Fullerton and a couple other schools. I just realized ‘OK, maybe this could be a career for me’. Definitely during college I had a lot of doubts about baseball but luckily I’m still playing and I’m definitely blessed to still be playing

MMN: What kind of an impact did your high school coach have on your career?

Wilson: For sure. It was a fundamental impact on  unwritten rules of the game and things like that. It was really once I got to junior college that I had a very influential coach. His name was Bill Pickett’s and he helped me turn my game around and help me with my mechanics, the mental game, and visualizing. Those are all things which I think are very important. My high school coach created the best for that and still does an up-and-coming players at Notre Dame obviously like  with players like Hunter Greene so he does a good job.

MMN: How early did you receive a scholarship from Saint Mary’s?

Wilson: I believe it was September of my senior year, so the very beginning of the fall. They saw me at the area code tryouts and they offered me a visit, so I went and it seemed to be a great fit for me at the time. It was a smaller school, Catholic school – I grew up Catholic my whole life – so it seem like a great fit. Things didn’t really work out there just for multiple reasons.

MMN: Entering your senior year, what did you have a vision for life after high school?

Wilson: Same as everybody, a scholarship for baseball going into college was what I was looking for. I wanted to be able to pay my tuition, which would be great. My main goal was to get a school that was relatively local and you stay in the state of California, so we were super happy with St. Mary’s in that respect. I think those are my two main goals. I didn’t really say anything past college at that point. I want to many focus on getting a scholarship, getting school paid for, and staying relatively local in California because I’m a homebody kind of guy.

MMN: What was your main motivation behind almost dropping out of baseball completely up to you being an ace in a Division-1 rotation?

Wilson: I really think it was my conference level because during my sophomore year in JuCo, I really had to turn things around and my coach, Bill Picketts, really helped. I was super blessed to get that scholarship from Fullerton; that happened really fast my sophomore year. I think they were looking for someone older, with a little bit more experience so I was super lucky for that opportunity.

I went into Fullerton with an open mind, not really knowing what role I was going to have, but knew I was just lucky to be there. I really figured I would just have a relief role, pitch every once in a while on the weekends. I didn’t really think I was going to have a big part. I got an opportunity to start and I seized the opportunity. From then on out I just did my thing, pitched the way I like to pitch, and it ended up working out.

MMN: How much consideration did you give to returning to Cal State for your senior year?

Wilson: I give a lot of consideration. Obviously, the draft is every baseball players dream and professional baseball is every player’s dream. Fullerton is a special experience and it definitely shape me into a new baseball player and there’s many things that I learned and I really like the coaching staff there. It’s a very tight-knit group of guys, and it was definitely a difficult decision.

Ultimately, I couldn’t turn down being drafted and taking a shot in my dream. It was definitely tough, and it’s tough now seeing all the guys go out for the season because I know what that’s like and I know it’s a very enjoyable experience. Ultimately, I think I made the best decision for me in moving forward with my career.

MMN: Continuing with this timeline, walk me through what happened on draft day.

Wilson: It was definitely a crazy few days. I had heard from a handful of teams that they were looking to take me, but you never really know until you get that phone call and you see that pick. We had just finished up the regional at Stanford beating them and we had just come back. It was about five minutes before practice the next day, and I was in the locker room. I was talking to my agent and he said that the Mets were looking to take me. I told him that I thought that was great, but I couldn’t really wrap my head around at the time. Then I saw the pick come in and all my friends and team came around and gave me hugs and what not. It was a really special moment. I called my dad real quick and told him what happened but he had saw what happened obviously. But we ended up going out for practice and we ended up having a three hour practice anyway.

MMN: After being drafted, you head to Brooklyn and become exclusively a reliever. What was the transition from starter to reliever like?

Wilson: I felt pretty good with the transition. The tougher part was the routine, because a starter’s routine is obviously much different from a reliever’s routine, so I had to figure out what the relieving routine was like for me, things like how long I needed to stretch, how long I needed to warm up, and how much I need to throw before thew game.

They gave me a few weeks to get my throwing into a rhythm, so I was mentally prepared for it. I knew I was only throwing one inning, so it is really a different game when you know you’re only throwing one inning and you can kinda leave it all out there. Ultimately I’m the same pitcher and I’m going to play my same game, but I’d say the routine is very very different.

MMN: How has your approach to this off-season differed from those of the past?

Wilson: I think for as long as I can remember, fall baseball has been conditioning, 6 A.M. weights, balancing all of that with school, and the grind. This off-season has been nice for me to focus on what I need to focus on. I took a few more classes at Fullerton; I’m trying to finish up my degree. But its time to focus on mostly my strength training and working on different pitches. Its been really nice to do my own thing and work on getting bigger and stronger.

I’ve gotten to work on honing in on some of my pitches, which is something you can’t really do in college ball. It’s tailored to what the program wants, and now that I’m on my own, I can focus on new grips on off-speed pitches, and its been really nice.

MMN: According to a few MLB scouts, your slider is on the edge of being MLB ready. What is the area of your game you need to improve on the most next season?

Wilson: The sliders taken me a while to get it where it is, so I’m definitely happy with where it is, but I’m still looking to get it better and more consistent. I’ve been trying to work consistency with the fastball and the change-up. The change gets a little firm at times, so I really want to focus on which pitch works best for me. I also want to work on tunneling pitches. That is huge for me and a lot of other guys, because I’m more of a spin rate, release point kind of guy, so all that stuff is important to me because I’m not going to be a overpowering, velocity guy. So with the slider, change-up, fastball all tunneling, looking at video of my mechanics, its all going to help. But consistency is the main thing I’ve been working on.

MMN: Where do you see yourself heading into camp four years from now?

Wilson: Definitely in big league camp. I think with what I’m doing, I can produce, get bigger and stronger, and show what I can do by then. I’ve had to prove myself a lot over the years, and I’ll have to prove myself to the Mets’ organization. I don’t think that I’m one of the top tier guys, so I’ll have to prove myself to get there. That’s definitely where I see myself.

MMN: In the end, what is your main goal for 2019?

Wilson: Where ever I land, I want to see an increase in my velocity with all the training I’ve done this fall. I think more consistency with the off-speed pitches is big for me. Being able to throw anything at anytime, along with pitchability, is huge for me. But I’d like to really have consistency. Being able to adjust at one pitch at a time is going to be big for me. Hopefully I can do that this season, prove myself, and keep making my way up through the organization.