​Since taking over as President of Baseball Operations and bringing Kriss Gross aboard as VP of Amateur Scouting, David Stearns has largely favored a specific profile: younger, less experienced players with athleticism and encouraging batted-ball data in limited at-bats. That pattern has dominated his first-round choices since joining the Mets, and there aren’t any hitters at the 27th overall selection this year who excite me as likely impact players. The hitters who are most reasonably available and could be viable selections at 27 tend to carry notable warts, such as in-zone swing-and-miss concerns, trouble lifting the ball, or being below-average athletes and/or defensively limited at their primary positions—often projects better suited for first base than elsewhere. For several years now, the organization has struggled to improve many players possessing these traits at various levels of the minor leagues, and I’m not convinced the Mets will maximize the upside of that specific player type this time around. With that in mind, I’d like Stearns and Gross to deviate from their usual MO this year; there’s no guarantee they will, and despite the Mets’ rumored ties to hitters, a hopeful fan can dream.
The 2026 MLB Draft class is widely regarded as pitching-rich, and I would prefer the Mets to target pitching with their first pick. Among the prep pitchers who figure to be reasonably available at 27, Logan Schmidt and Coleman Borthwick emerge as the players with the highest upside. Schmidt hails from Ganesha High School in Pomona, California, while Borthwick comes from South Walton High School in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Both offer plus velocities, sitting in the mid-to-high-90s, with Schmidt featuring a slurve around 80 mph and an upper-80s changeup, and Borthwick offering a mid-80s slider complemented by a mid-80s changeup. Schmidt has a commitment to LSU, whereas Borthwick is committed to Auburn.
Complicating matters further is the Mets’ current draft position and pool. They do not have a second-round pick, nor a fifth-round pick, and their bonus pool for the 2026 draft ranks among the smallest in the league. It would be an overstatement to say the Mets “need” to nail their first pick, but the likelihood of a steep talent drop-off between the first-round selection at 27 and the next pick at 92 in the third round is real. In the history of the draft, among the 61 players selected with the 92nd pick, 23 reached the majors, and of those, 12 posted at least 1.0 WAR, with J.A. Happ, Aaron Civale, and Tyrone Taylor among the more productive players taken there in the 21st century. Last year, the Mets lost their second-round pick due to signing Juan Soto, and they selected Antonio Jimenez with their next pick. Jimenez has thus far been underwhelming in the minor leagues, a reminder that valuing the right combination of talent, projectability, and organizational fit is crucial in a year with limited bonus pool flexibility.
In short, I’d like to see the Mets pivot from their established pattern and prioritize pitching at the 27th pick, selecting a prep pitcher with legitimate upside, such as Schmidt or Borthwick, if available. Doing so could help maximize value in a class that’s heavy on arms and light on immediate position-player impact, and it would align with the stronger overall need of developing high-ceiling pitching within an organization that has traditionally targeted athletic, high-upside bats in earlier rounds.