Back in 2010, Omar Minaya ran his last draft with the New York Mets. His parting gifts to the New York Mets organization were a pair of aces in Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom. This began a stretch where the Mets have drafted better than any National League team.

According to Down on the Farm, Mets draftees have accumulated more WAR than any team in the National League, and they are second to the Houston Astros in all of baseball. This is based upon total fWAR a player has contributed only to his drafting organization and not to other teams. Overall, Mets draftees have accumulated approximately 150 WAR for the franchise over the past 11+ years.

Here is a look at drafted WAR by all organizations since 2010. Astros in the lead by quite a bit. The Angels, Tigers, and Yankees have accumulated the least amount of value through the draft. Angels are not last as I previously Tweeted, but they are pretty close to last https://t.co/ZzPwNj87IY pic.twitter.com/fDQg6djQKx

— Down on the Farm (@downonthefarm12) July 7, 2022

Obviously, deGrom leads the way with a 38.9 fWAR. Between him and Harvey and his 13.0 fWAR, the Mets accumulated 51.9 fWAR from just those two players. Essentially, the Mets have accumulated nearly 100 fWAR from the drafts which occurred after Minaya was terminated.

The Mets drafts really took off when Sandy Alderson was hired and put his front office together in the wake of the Madoff Ponzi Scheme scandal. The drafts were first run by Paul DePodesta and over time by a team headed by Tommy Tanous.

In some ways, that 2011 Mets draft was very strong. The Mets found a prototypical lead-off hitter in Brandon Nimmo (15.4 fWAR) and an elite set-up man in Seth Lugo (6.5 fWAR). There were other contributors like Robert Gsellman (3.4 fWAR).

The Mets didn’t just there. In fact, Nimmo had begun a fairly strong run of first round draft picks. In fact, from 2010 – 2018, all of their first round picks reached the majors. Brett Baty, the 2019 first round pick is currently in Double-A.

Looking at all of the first round picks, Michael Conforto was the most productive. He had a 19.3 fWAR, which is second only to David Wright among position players over this stretch. Notably, this doesn’t include Conforto’s 2015 postseason where he hit three homers.

Of course, with Conforto being a free agent, his being that high on the leaderboard is only going to last so long. At the moment, Nimmo is nipping at his heels. The same can be said for Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil.

Alonso, the Mets 2016 second round pick, has a 10.0 fWAR so far in his career. What is remarkable is Alonso was actually the third player the Mets selected in that draft. Another player from that draft currently contributing to the Mets is ninth round pick Colin Holderman (0.3 fWAR).

McNeil, the Mets 2013 sixth round pick, has a 12.9 fWAR. He was part of a draft that also netted the Mets first round pick Dominic Smith (-0.1 fWAR), 10th round pick Luis Guillorme (2.8 fWAR), and others.

With the Mets, you do notice a trend. At the top of the drafts, they can identify true Major League caliber players. In the first two rounds, they have drafted All-Stars in Harvey, Michael Fulmer (traded), Conforto, and Alonso. They have found solid contributing players like Kevin Plawecki (1.6 fWAR).

More than that, they have been able to find value at the end of drafts. Lugo was a 34th round pick. Lugo was one of the five Mets pitchers who took part in the c0-no. The first five of those innings came from Tylor Megill (1.3 fWAR), who was the Mets eighth round pick in the 2018 draft.

Over the years, we should see the Mets rise through the rankings. Keep in mind while the Houston Astros have a large lead over the Mets, much of the fWAR the Astros have received has come from George Springer and Carlos Correa, both players who have left the organization. As we have seen the Mets still have many of their drafted players who are key contributors.

Of course, this comes with a caveat. First and foremost, many of those players will hit free agency soon, and we do not know who will stay with the organization. Also, the Los Angeles Angels were one of the worst drafting teams in all of baseball over this stretch. Another team poor at drafting was the New York Yankees. Current Mets GM Billy Eppler was a Yankees assistant GM from 2012 – 2014, and he was the Angels GM from 2015 – 2020.

Despite that, the Mets have the current structure and ownership to allow Eppler to continue the Mets strong drafting. Between the players who will be selected, who are on the Mets, and who will be called up over the next few seasons, it is very possible we could see the Mets overtake the Astros.