Mets stick with experience in draft
The Mets’ plan under general manager Sandy Alderson early in the draft has been clear. Experience above all else.
For the third consecutive draft, the Mets went with a college player in the opening round, selecting Oregon southpaw David Peterson with the 20th overall selection Monday night to kick off the three-day MLB draft.
In last year’s draft, the Mets used their two firstround picks on college hurlers Justin Dunn and Anthony Kay. In 2014, Michael Conforto was the opening-round pick. The Mets didn’t have a firstround choice in 2015. With their second-round pick (59th overall) Monday, the Mets chose high school third baseman Mark Vientos from Florida.
“Overall tonight, we feel very fortunate to acquire two players we had on our first-round board,” said Tommy Tanous, the Mets’ vice president of international and amateur scouting.
The 6-foot-6, 240-pound Peterson, the 17th-ranked player in the draft according to Baseball America, had a big junior year, going 11-4 with a 2.51 ERA, 140 strikeouts in 100 ¹ /3 innings pitched and just 15 walks. With a fastball in the low- to-mid 90s and a sharp slider, he allowed only two home runs and twice this season set a school record for most strikeouts in a game, first with 17 and then 20.
Peterson, a Denver native, was drafted out of high school, going in the 28th round of the 2014 draft to the Red Sox, but didn’t sign, opting to go to college instead. The Mets don’t envision having a problem signing him, according to Tanous.
“We don’t see that as an issue,” he said.
Third baseman Wilmer Flores was given the day off after starting the previous 11 games. Jose Reyes started in his place, and went 1-for-4 with an RBI single in the Mets’ 6-1 win over the Cubs.
Flores is batting .379 (39for-103) since May 1, which is the highest batting average in baseball in that time. With the Mets scheduled to face left-handers the next three games, Collins wanted to give Flores, who specializes in hitting southpaws, a breather on Monday.
The Mets signed righthanded reliever Daniel Bard to a minor league contract. He will report to the team’s minor-league facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
The 31-year-old Bard, who last pitched in the majors in 2013 for the Red Sox, was released May 15 by the Cardi- nals after pitching to a 10.38 ERA with 19 walks over 8.2 innings in Double-A.
Asdrubal Cabrera and Reyes collided on a second-inning Jason Heyward pop-up, allowing it to drop for a two-base error. Cabrera was charged with the error, his 11th. He responded with his first multi-homer game of the season, and had a hand in turning four double plays. ... The Mets have defeated the Cubs seven straight times at Citi Field dating to the 2015 NLCS. ... Jay Bruce extended his hitting streak to nine games with a two-run homer in the third. He is batting .384 (15for-39) in that stretch with five home runs and 10 RBIs.