Allan Winans/Bennett Scarborough
In the Baseball America primer for the Rule 5 draft, J.J. Cooper and Geoff Pontes named Mets RHP Allan Winans as a potential Rule 5 target. Winans, 25, is coming off a very strong year with Brooklyn and Binghamton where he posted a 1.72 ERA.
Baseball America noted he uses a “slider-heavy four-seam pitch mix,” and he “avoids more barrels than he misses bats.” This is reflected in his stats for the season where Winans held opposing batters to a .145/.232/.245 batting line. In fact, he allowed just three homers and nine extra base hits over the course of the entire season while striking out 45 of the 179 batters he faced (25%).
Overall, Winans made 26 appearances going 2-3 with a 1.72 ERA, three saves, a 0.809 WHIP, 2.9 BB/9, and an 8.6 K/9. He was the Mets 2018 17th round draft pick out of Campbell University.
In the event Winans is selected from the Mets, the drafting team would pay the Mets a $24,500 transaction fee. While Winans, or whomever may be drafted off the Mets minor league roster, is immediately assigned to the drafting team’s Triple-A roster, they may place him at any minor league level of their choosing.
Typically speaking, over half of the Rule 5 drafted minor league players are pitchers with catchers also being popular. Notable minor league rule 5 players have been Justin Bour, Omar Narvaez, Alejandro De Aza, and Ryan Thompson. Notably, the last two played with the Mets at some point in their careers.
Last year, the Mets drafted CF Drew Ferguson from the Houston Astros organization, RHP Justin Dillon from the Toronto Blue Jays organization, 2B Drew Jackson from the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, RHP Jesus Reyes from the Cincinnati Reds organization, and LHP Jose Zorrilla from the Reds organization. The Mets lost SS Sebastian Espino to the Blue Jays organization, C Wilfred Astudillo to the Reds organization, RHP Ezequiel Zabaleta to the Tampa Bay Rays organization, and 2B Mitchell Tolman to the San Francisco Giants organization.
The minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft is scheduled to take place on December 8 at 2:00 P.M. Check back here for analysis of the players drafted from the Mets organization as well as players the Mets may draft from other organizations.
