Gavin Cross, Photo by Virginian Tech Athletics
The most recent mock draft from Baseball America has the Mets selecting two of the more popular prospects in this year’s Amateur Draft – Virginia Tech outfielder Gavin Cross and St. Mary Prep HS righty Brock Porter. They mock those players to the Mets at numbers 11 and 14 respectively.
Cross, who will spend the rest of the 2022 season at age 21, has posted a slash line of .318/.399/.627 with 14 homers and an 11-11 stolen base mark so far in his junior season for the Hokies. He battles with James Madison’s Chase DeLauter for the mark of best collegiate outfielder in this year’s class, but Baseball America sees Cross going off the board before DeLauter here.
Porter, on the other hand, would be a selection unlike one the Mets have made in recent memory. The Mets have not selected a prep arm in the first round of the Amateur Draft since they did with Michael Fulmer in 2010. Even further back then that, they’ve only done so two other times since 2000: Scott Kazmir in 2002 and Nathan Vineyard in 2007. The Mets have only taken collegiate arms since Tommy Tanous and Marc Tramuta took over control of the draft.
Porter stands in at 6’4, 210 pounds with a lively fastball that can touch triple-digits, according to his Perfect Game page. At the moment, he is a fastball-changeup-curveball pitcher who is developing the curveball as a solid third pitch. As for Porter, BA states that “This mock would have the Mets getting the best healthy pitcher in the draft class and one of the biggest upside arms available, period. That’s the sort of draft we’re talking about in 2022 when that happens at pick No. 14.”
The main point that Baseball America rings home here with their mock is the financial flexibility the Mets have in this draft class. They note that “New York’s $13,955,700 bonus pool tops any club outside of Baltimore and Arizona, so how it decides to use that will be fascinating.
The Mets would be an obvious landing spot for a top talent that starts to unexpectedly slide for whatever reason on draft day (see Watson, Kahlil in 2021 or Liberatore, Matthew in 2018) and they could get aggressive with an over-slot deal by floating a deal if one of the top six players starts falling out of the top-five picks.”
Mets Minors will continue to keep you up to date and covered with the latest MLB draft news and rumors.
