Hunter Bishop/Rob Schumacher (The Republic)
With the 2019 MLB Draft hours away, the various outlets are releasing their final mock drafts. For the most part, the growing consensus seems to be building towards the Mets drafting a collegiate pitcher, namely Kentucky starter Zack Thompson, Fangraphs now projects the Mets to draft Arizona State CF Hunter Bishop.
Bishop has been named the Perfect Game and D1Baseball’s Midseason Player of the Year, and he was named as a Pac-12 All-Conference First Team selection. In 57 games this year, Bishop is hitting .342/.479/.748 with 16 doubles, four triples, 22 homers, and 63 RBI. All of these numbers are career bests for the 20 year old Junior.
Hunter Bishop. OF Arizona State. 356/482/792 22HR 42BB 56K. Toolsy. Yelich swing comp. pic.twitter.com/7t70ptWGZL
— Blaine Beaty (@blaine_beaty10) May 26, 2019
This would be a fall from where Bishop was originally projected. In fact, MLB Pipeline has ranked Bishop the seventh best prospect heading into the draft. One interesting note with respect to Bishop was Fangraphs believed he could go to the Rangers at number eight. Fangraphs believes Bishop is “no longer in the mix” for the Rangers. An interesting note here is Fangraphs has the Rangers drafting Texas Tech 3B Josh Jung, a player who had been previously linked to the Mets.
Fangraphs projecting Bishop to the Mets is not that far off what seems to be conventional wisdom. In fact, Fangraphs notes Thompson remains in the mix for the Mets at 12. The other possibility here is UNLV SS Bryson Stott. Whether it is Bishop, Thompson, Stott, or anyone else is anyone’s best guess right now. In any event, we will soon find out who the Mets will be drafting at 12.
