Photo Credit: Hartford Courant
Jonathan Mayo announced that the Mets signed their 12th round pick Matt Cleveland out of Windsor High School in Conneticut. The ”6.5” 200 pound right-handed pitcher got a $400,000 signing bonus ($300K over slot) in the deal with the Mets. He is expected to join the GCL Mets.
This is what Baseball America had to say about the 18 year old:
Cleveland opened eyes pitching for the Northeast Yankees Area Code team as a rising senior. Prior to the Area Code Games, Cleveland pitched in an exhibition game against a team from the Futures Collegiate League, and his fastball reached 94 mph and sat comfortably in the low 90s. He stands at 6-foot-5 and has an easy delivery, though he has a long arm swing and can struggle to repeat his mechanics. Cleveland’s velocity backed up at times this spring, and he sat more in the upper 80s. His offspeed stuff needs lots of work; his curveball is far from average at present. Cleveland has limited exposure to high-level coaching and is a solid athlete. He is considered to be very signable, though he is committed to play at Florida Southwestern JC.
Cleveland is a pick with a ton of potential and a nice power arm added to the Mets farm system. His fastball is reaching top velocity but, his breaking stuff is a work in progress. He seems to be more of a thrower than a pitcher, but as a 18-year old coming out of high school he has a lot of time to work on his secondary stuff.
This is the high upside type of pick most Mets fans were hoping for in the middle rounds. The Mets have now signed 25 of their 41 picks with their first round compensation pick Anthony Kay still negotiating.
After I kind of gave up on Planck, I was really hoping that they would sign Cleveland. I almost like Cleveland better than Planck now, as I think there’s more projectability for him. Going 300K overslot doesn’t leave much extra though, depending on how much they sign Kay for
How much at risk are we for losing future picks? We spent a lot on Holderman and Cleveland.
Zero. Mets would have to more than 5% over pool to lose picks. Going over less than 5% is purely a financial penalty. Anthony Kay would have to be signed over slot for Mets to go over the 5%.
So if Kay goes for slot we’re okay, but are we still in contention for Planck and Haynes?
If Kay goes for slot, the Mets would be close to the 5% limit. Kay’s slot money is $1,972,100. The slot money for players drafted after the 10th rounds is $100,000. Planck has already turned down $600k. For the Mets to sign Planck, Kay would need to sign for at least $500k below slot. I do not know as much about Haynes, but I assume he would sign for a lot less than Planck.
Forget Planck then. The big extra bonuses we handed out in the late rounds were Holderman and Cleveland. Hopefully they were worth the investment. And do you know anything on Kay? Would he take slot? If he doesn’t sign then it’s basically the same as signing him for slot right? So no worries?
If Kay does not sign, the Mets lose his slot money, but get a compensation pick next year. That being said, there is almost no chance that Kay does not sign. If he goes back to UCONN for his senior year he will have no leverage next year. Kay also threw 119 innings this season, so there is no rush to sign him because the Mets will be limiting his innings the rest of this year. IMO after signing Kay, Planck should be the Mets #1 priority.
Signing a 1st-10th round pick for slot or not signing him is the same under my knowledge as far as the bonus pool goes. What you’ve described to me tells me Planck is not signing. And if Kay doesn’t sign, it’d be a Kyle Funkhouser situation.
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