25 Years of Mets Rookies

I remember 2001 like it was yesterday (the good parts of it, anyway; I have a big blank spot during that day that’s honestly probably for the best). Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” just finished playing on TRL and Carson Daly began talking about Jennifer Lopez breaking up with P. Diddy, but I wasn’t interested in that so started changing the channel. Did I want to watch Survivor or that new Band of Brothers series that looked cool? Looking over at my alarm clock to see what time it was, I realized I didn’t have time for more TV. I chugged the rest of my 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi Twist and picked up the $10 bill I left on my dresser, enough to buy a ticket to see The Fellowship of the Ring and have enough left over to buy popcorn and soda! I slammed the door to my room a little too hard, causing one corner of my Final Fantasy X poster to sag off the wall, but I was in a hurry and didn’t care. Running downstairs, I picked up the kitchen phone to call my best friend, but I got a modem signal: my sister was playing on AOL! After making a stink, she logged off, and I punched in my friend’s number. “Wassssuuuuuuppppp!!!” I yelled into the receiver…

What a great time to be alive.

Since the beginning of the 2001 season, 5,805 players have made their Major League Baseball debuts. The 2003 season saw the fewest rookies get their first call ups (182), while the 2022 season saw the most (303). On average, 232 players have gotten their first call ups per year over the course of the last twenty-five seasons, with a fairly clear pattern emerging. Breaking down the data into five-year chunks, 199.8 players made their MLB debuts between 2001-2005, 215.4 made their debuts between 2006-2010, 232.8 made their debuts between 2011-2015, 247.8 made their debuts between 2016-2020, and 265.2 made their debuts between 2021-2025.

Since the 2001 season, the Mets have called up 117 homegrown players. For the purposes of this discussion, I am defining “homegrown players” as players who were either initially drafted or signed by the Mets and then developed in-house. That means that I am not including players who were drafted or signed by other teams, such as Zack Wheeler, who was originally drafted by the San Fransisco Giants in the first round of the 2009 MLB Draft, or Dilson Herrera, who was originally signed as an international free agent out of Colombia by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Additionally, I am not including foreign players such as Alay Soler, Dae-Sung Koo, or Ryota Igarashi, players whose first American teams were the Mets but already established themselves as players in foreign leagues in Cuba, Korea, and Japan, respectively.

2001: C/1B Jason Phillips (0.7 WAR), RHP Dickey Gonzalez (0.2 WAR), OF Alex Escobar (-0.4 WAR)

2002: RHP Jae-Weong Seo (7.1 WAR), INF/OF Ty Wigginton (1.5 WAR), LHP Jamie Cerda (0.5 WAR), RHP Tyler Walker (-0.1 WAR), RHP Pat Strange (-0.3 WAR)

2003: INF Jose Reyes (27.9 WAR), RHP Aaron Heilman (2.4 WAR), INF Daniel Garcia (0.2 WAR), RHP Jason Roach (-0.4 WAR), OF Prentice Redman (-0.5 WAR), RHP Jeremy Griffiths (-0.6 WAR), OF Jeff Duncan (-0.9 WAR)

2004: INF David Wright (49.1 WAR), C Joe Hietpas (0.0 WAR), 1B Craig Brazell (0.0 WAR), RHP Heath Bell (-0.2 WAR)

2005: 1B Mike Jacobs (1.1 WAR)

2006: RHP Mike Pelfrey (6.5 WAR), RHP Brian Bannister (0.4 WAR), OF Lastings Milledge (0.3 WAR), RHP Phil Humber (-0.1 WAR)

2007: RHP Joe Smith (1.3 WAR), OF Carlos Gomez (0.1 WAR), RHP Carlos Muñiz (-0.1 WAR)

2008: INF/OF Daniel Murphy (13.1 WAR), RHP Jon Niese (6.3 WAR), INF/OF Nick Evans (1.3 WAR), RHP Bobby Parnell (0.8 WAR), RHP Eddie Kunz (-0.2 WAR)

2009: C Josh Thole (1.0 WAR), RHP Tobi Stoner (0.1 WAR), OF Fernando Martinez (-0.4 WAR)

2010: 1B/OF Lucas Duda (7.8 WAR), 1B Ike Davis (5.7 WAR), INF Ruben Tejada (5.1 WAR), RHP Dillon Gee (4.9 WAR), RHP Jenrry Mejia (1.1 WAR)

2011: INF Josh Satin (0.7 WAR), RHP Josh Stinson (-0.5 WAR), RHP Chris Schwinden (-0.7 WAR)

2012: RHP Matt Harvey (10.4 WAR), RHP Jeurys Familia (6.8 WAR), OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis (2.3 WAR), LHP Josh Edgin (1.6 WAR), INF Zach Lutz (0.0 WAR), RHP Elvin Ramirez (-0.1 WAR), INF/OF Jordany Valdespin (-0.4 WAR), LHP Robert Carson (-0.9 WAR), RHP Collin McHugh (-1.2 WAR)

2013: OF Juan Lagares (12.3 WAR), INF Wilmer Flores (2.3 WAR), OF Matt den Dekker (0.2 WAR), C Juan Centeno (-0.1 WAR), INF Wilfredo Tovar (-0.2 WAR), RHP Gonzalez Germen (-0.2 WAR)

2014: RHP Jacob deGrom (41.2 WAR), RHP Erik Goeddel (0.7 WAR), RHP Rafael Montero (-0.6 WAR), INF Eric Campbell (-0.6 WAR)

2015: OF Michael Conforto (15.5 WAR), LHP Steven Matz (5.8 WAR), C Kevin Plawecki (2.7 WAR), RHP Hansel Robles (0.8 WAR), OF Darrell Ceciliani (0.5 WAR), LHP Jack Leathersich (0.3 WAR), RHP Akeel Morris (-0.2 WAR), INF Danny Muno (-0.3 WAR)

2016: OF Brandon Nimmo (26.1 WAR), RHP Seth Lugo (8.4 WAR), INF T.J. Rivera (1.7 WAR), RHP Gabriel Ynoa (-0.3 WAR), RHP Robert Gsellman (-0.5 WAR), INF Gavin Cecchini (-0.5 WAR)

2017: INF Amed Rosario (3.5 WAR), RHP Chasen Bradford (0.3 WAR), RHP Kevin McGowan (0.0 WAR), 1B/OF Dom Smith (0.0 WAR), INF/OF Phil Evans (0.0 WAR), RHP Tyler Pill (-0.3 WAR), OF Travis Taijeron (-0.6 WAR), C Tomas Nido (-1.1 WAR), RHP Paul Sewald (-1.2 WAR), RHP Chris Flexen (-2.2 WAR)

2018: INF/OF Jeff McNeil (23.0 WAR), INF Luis Guillorme (3.0 WAR), OF Kevin Kaszmarski (-0.1 WAR), LHP P.J. Conlon (-0.2 WAR), RHP Tim Peterson (-0.4 WAR), RHP Ty Bashlor (-0.7 WAR), RHP Corey Oswalt (-0.7 WAR)

2019: 1B Pete Alonso (23.3 WAR)

2020: LHP David Peterson (6.8 WAR), INF Andres Gimenez (1.0 WAR), C Ali Sanchez (-0.1 WAR)

2021: RHP Tylor Megill (2.0 WAR), C Patrick Mazeika (-0.4 WAR), LHP Thomas Szapucki (-0.5 WAR)

2022: C Francisco Alvarez (3.7 WAR), RHP Jose Butto (3.1 WAR), INF Brett Baty (2.5 WAR), INF Mark Vientos (1.7 WAR), RHP Colin Holderman (0.5 WAR), RHP Bryce Montes de Oca (-0.1 WAR)

2023: INF Ronny Mauricio (0.9 WAR), LHP Josh Walker (-0.5 WAR), RHP Grant Hartwig (-0.5 WAR)

2024: RHP Dedniel Nunez (0.8 WAR), RHP Christian Scott (0.3 WAR), RHP Eric Orze (-0.2 WAR)

2025: RHP Nolan McLean (1.8 WAR), RHP Brandon Sproat (0.2 WAR), RHP Dom Hamel (0.0 WAR), RHP Jonathan Pintaro (-0.1 WAR), C Hayden Senger (-0.2 WAR), RHP Blade Tidwell (-0.5 WAR), RHP Jonah Tong (-0.8 WAR)

The 2017 season saw the Mets call-up the most homegrown players, with Chasen Bradford, Phil Evans, Chris Flexen, Kevin McGowan, Tomas Nido, Tyler Pill, Amed Rosario, Paul Sewald, Dom Smith, and Travis Taijeron all getting their first tastes of big league action. The 2005 and 2019 seasons saw the fewest, with two defensively challenged slugging first basemen in Mike Jacobs and Pete Alonso making their debuts. The 2012 season saw the Mets call up their highest percentage of homegrown players in relation to the rest of Major League Baseball, with the nine players- Rob Carson, Josh Edgin, Jeurys Familia, Matt Harvey, Zach Lutz, Collin McHugh, Kirk Nieuwinhuis, Elvin Ramirez, and Jordany Valdespin- making their debuts, representing 4.4% of the total debuts that season.

As expected, former captain and Mets Hall of Famer David Wright was the best hitter (as well as the best overall player) to work his way up the minor league ladder and debut with the team. If Wright was the heart of the Mets during his time on the field, Jose Reyes was the soul, and the shortstop joins Wright as the second-most valuable position player rookie the organization has developed. If a third part of the heart and soul idiom existed, Brandon Nimmo would certainly qualify, and in addition, the recently traded outfielder finds himself third in terms of most valuable homegrown position players developed by the Mets.

In a development as obvious as me saying that water is wet or the sky is blue, Jacob deGrom finds himself atop the list of most valuable homegrown pitchers. Matt Harvey is the second most valuable homegrown pitcher the Mets have developed, a position he likely still would have likely still found himself in even if his career hadn’t flamed out as quickly as it did due to injuries, as deGrom’s greatness was historical at times. Seth Lugo makes a surprise appearance on the list as the third most valuable homegrown pitcher developed by the team, though he faced some stiff competition with multiple players nipping at his heels, which highlights the difficulty the organization has had in developing and retaining premium pitching talent- a trend that hopefully will end with the current bumper crop of homegrown pitching talent that the organization currently has knocking on the door.

Among players who left the Mets to go to other organizations, either via trades or as free agents, Carlos Gomez ended up having the best career of these players, posting a 24.3 WAR while playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros, and Tampa Bay Rays. Collin McHugh had the next best career, accruing 13.6 WAR with the Astros, Atlanta Braves, Rays, and Colorado Rockies. Following him is Joe Smith, who accrued 11.6 WAR with the Cleveland Indians, Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, Twins, Seattle Mariners, and Chicago Cubs, Heath Bell, who accrued 8.6 WAR with the San Diego Padres, Miami Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Rays, and finally Wilmer Flores, who accrued 7 WAR with Arizona and the San Francisco Giants.

Top 10 Homegrown Mets since 2001

Top 10 Homegrown Hitters since 2001Top 10 Homegrown Pitchers since 2000

25 Years of Mets Rookies

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