It was an entire ownership group ago that Matt Allan was selected in the third round of the 2019 MLB draft out of high school and was positioned to be the Mets best pitching prospect. To get Allan away from his college commitment, the Mets went well over slot, giving him a $2.5 million signing bonus. After a 10-inning glimpse of Rookie Ball and Low-A in 2019, Allan was set to come into the 2020 season riding high on his upside and looking to establish his place in professional baseball. If only this were how the story progressed.
During the wiped-out minor league season in 2020, Allan didn’t pitch in any games but did train at the alternate site in Brooklyn. In 2021, Allan tore his UCL in his throwing arm, which would lead him to get his first Tommy John surgery. After difficulties recovering from that surgery, Allan went under the knife yet again in 2022 to move a nerve that was causing irritation when he threw, a procedure not uncommon for those who undergo Tommy John surgery. Unfortunately, Allan would require a UCL revision surgery with an internal brace in 2023 just to get him back on the baseball field.
If this entire process shows anything, it certainly exhibits that Allan, who has now worked through four years of injuries and three surgeries to the same arm, still has an extreme level of commitment to becoming the guy the Mets drafted. He went unprotected in the 2024 Rule 5 draft, and no team selected him, which isn’t much of a surprise considering that the 23-year-old has only thrown 10 1/3 minor league innings in his career.
Prior to the injury, Allan had a full four-pitch mix, including a four-seam fastball, a cutter, a curveball, and a changeup. The curveball was rated as one of the best in the 2019 draft class, with a velocity nearly 20 MPH slower than his fastball, allowing him to keep hitters off balance. The changeup lacked consistency, as it does with most young pitchers, but when it was on, it did have some good arm-side run.
In more recent news, Allan has been throwing bullpen sessions again and has been getting his velocity into the 94-97 range – which is roughly where it was prior to his injuries. The biggest takeaway for the 2025 season will be whether can he stay healthy and still be a part of the Mets’ future. Allan can probably be expected to be handled very carefully and to gradually build up his pitch counts and inning totals. Due to his lack of experience and age, Allan will probably begin the minor league season in Low-A while he works on refining his mechanics and building up to a starters workload.
Despite all of the setbacks, a healthy Matt Allan could quickly become a top-10 Mets pitching prospect not only due to his stuff, or his draft pedigree but the determination he has shown in going through multiple years of rehab and overcoming setback after setback to get on the mound. One thing that can’t be measured with a statistic is heart, and Matt Allan seems to have that in spades.
