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Contact: Kevin Fitzgerald
Friday, September 29, 2017
Mets Honor Humphreys with 2017 Sterling Award
Right-hander Wins Annual Award, Named Columbia’s Top Player of 2017
COLUMBIA, SC – After dominating the South Atlantic League this past season, the New York Mets honored right-hander Jordan Humphreyswith Columbia’s 2017 Sterling Award. The Mets present the Sterling Awards annually to the most valuable player at each minor league level.
Humphreys won 10 of his 11 starts with Columbia, finished with a scorching 1.42 ERA and was named a South Atlantic League All-Star. The 21-year-old pitching prospect earned a call-up to the Class A advanced St. Lucie Mets in June.
“It’s awesome,” Humphreys said to the media in New York this week. “I took spring training seriously [this year], worked on all my pitches and had a great turnout.”
The 21-year-old’s 10 wins and 1.42 ERA led the South Atlantic League at the all-star break. Humphreys also struck out 80 hitters and walked just nine over 69.2 innings. His elite 8.9:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio was third-best in the SAL among pitchers who logged 60 or more innings. The Crystal River, Florida, native struck out a Fireflies franchise-record 12 batters on April 24 against Asheville, doing so in just 6.2 innings.
“He has great command of all of his pitches,” Fireflies manager Jose Leger said earlier this season. “He’s able to locate the fastball up, down, in and off the plate. He sets up the hitters and if you’re able to do that with the fastball, it just makes your off-speed better. He has good, smooth mechanics that help his velocity. He looks like he just jumps at you when he throws.“
Humphreys never allowed more than two runs in any of his 11 starts with Columbia and held hitters to a miniscule .168 batting average.MLB.com ranks Humphreys as the 13th-best Mets minor league prospect.
Humphreys and the nine other Sterling Award winners were honored at Citi Field in New York before the Mets hosted the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night. The Mets prospect was treated to an on-field ceremony and a tour of the park before taking in that evening’s game.
The Mets drafted Humphreys in the 18th round of the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Crystal River High School. Ironically enough, Crystal River is the same high school former MLB All-Star and New York Mets starter Mike Hampton attended.
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