Jeremiah Jackson, Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso of NorthJersey/USA TODAY NETWORK
The Rule 5 Draft is set to take place on Wednesday, December 6th during the Winter Meetings in Nashville. With the ultimate aspirations of the New York Mets during the upcoming season still unclear, the organization could be pretty active in the draft as they have been in recent years. Here are the players the Mets could stand to gain (and lose) in this year’s Rule 5 Draft.
Before that though, let’s begin with a quick summary of what the Rule 5 Draft is and how it works. The Rule 5 Draft takes place during the Winter Meetings every offseason. It serves as an opportunity for players who have accrued five years of service time but have not been added to their organization’s 40-man roster to be selected by other teams.
If a player is selected in the draft, he is immediately added to the selecting team’s 26-man active roster. That player must then spend the entire subsequent season on the major league active roster.
If the team wants to remove that player from the active roster, he must be placed on waivers and ultimately offered back to his original team should he clear waivers. If the original team declines the opportunity to re-acquire the player, he remains with his new organization.
The Mets’ current roster is quite thin when it comes to pitching, and there are a few intriguing arms available in this year’s Rule 5 Draft. The Mets pick eighth in the draft, although they currently only have 33 players on their 40-man roster, and therefore, have some flexibly with their picks.
A pitcher that appears to be a great fit is Justin Slaten, a right-hander who was a 3rd-round pick by the Texas Rangers in 2019. He is 26 years old and has just five career Triple-A appearances, but he has exceptional strikeout numbers (2.87 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings in 2023). He is susceptible to the home run ball and has had command issues in the past.
The current Mets bullpen is far from defined outside of closer Edwin Díaz, and Slaten could have a real shot at carving out a role should he be selected.
Another player to keep an eye on is CJ Van Eyk, a right-handed pitcher and former 2nd-round pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2020. Van Eyk struggled in his first season of professional ball in 2021, missed all of the 2022 season while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, and pitched just 34 1/3 innings in 2023.
Still, he looked solid on the mound across three levels of the minors, and he was even better during the Arizona Fall League, posting a 2.51 ERA across five appearances. The Mets have a lot of question marks both in their rotation and bullpen, and it might make sense to take a flier on a pitcher like Van Eyk who has showcased elite strikeout stuff in the past.
In terms of players the Mets might lose during the Rule 5 Draft, right-handed pitcher Coleman Crow appears to be attracting a lot of attention. Crow was acquired from the Los Angeles Angels in the Eduardo Escobar deal, but he underwent Tommy John surgery in August and never actually took the mound following the trade.
He was sensational in limited action in 2023, his age-22 season (1.88 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 24 innings), and it is possible an organization will select him despite the uncertainty around how much he can contribute during the 2024 season.
Jeremiah Jackson is also eligible to be selected, although he is not nearly as likely to be selected as Crow. Jackson was actually Rule 5-eligible last season while in the Angels organization but was not selected, and he went on to have a strong 2023 campaign.
His numbers improved across the board after a mid-season trade to the Mets in the Dominic Leone deal, posting an .802 OPS with seven homers and six stolen bases in 37 games with Binghamton. Jackson also offers great positional flexibility, having played all around the diamond throughout his professional career. However, he will be 24 entering the 2024 season and has not played a game above the Double-A level, so it would be a big gamble for any organization to effectively guarantee him a major league roster spot.
