Welcome to the big leagues Mr. Ginn.
Well, at least a valuable taste of it.
According to Tim Healey of Newsday, the Mets have officially invited J.T. Ginn to big league spring training. The Mets selected Ginn in the second round of the 2020 Amateur Draft (52nd overall), and clearly have big plans for the 21 year old right-hander.
Ginn underwent the knife last March, after making just a few impressive starts in his final Junior season at Mississippi State, needing to have reconstructive surgery on his ulnarcolateral ligament (UCL). Ginn has spent the winter rehabbing and throwing at Cressey Sports Performance down in Florida with Noah Syndergaard, who is also recuperating from his own Tommy John surgery. Eric Cressey is highly regarded as perhaps the preeminent voice on modern sports training, with a big focus on baseball.
It isn’t a huge surprise to see Ginn get this invite to hang around and learn from some of the best pitchers in the game, like Syndergaard, Stroman, and deGrom. Tommy Tanous, the Mets Vice President of International and Amateur Scouting, spoke glowingly of Ginn last summer after the Mets endowed him with an over-slot $2.9 million signing bonus.
Referring to Ginn’s “turbo sinker” and his high-spin slider, Tanous and the Mets see two potentially plus to plus-plus pitches in Ginn’s repertoire, with enough athleticism in his delivery to hone a big league changeup in time. Who better to glean information on turning over a changeup than any of the vaunted names above?
After hearing Mets 2019 third round pick Matt Allan beam about the value of spending time alongside Jacob deGrom in camp so far, the experience Ginn will get this March will undoubtedly be invaluable, even as he continues his journey to a professional mound.
With good fortune and continued hard work, hopefully we see Ginn pitching in Gulf Coast League games later this summer, if not a brief taste of full season competition.
