The Rule 5 Draft is eight days away. The Mets opted to only protect one player, Nick Morabito, and now the rest of the 28 prospects are all fair game. These players are eligible to be picked by other MLB organizations because they’ve been with the Mets for either four or five years since they were drafted.
The Mets will have their chances too to poach other teams’ prospects that they deem are worth keeping on the 40-man roster in 2026. Not all 28 prospects will be selected, but out of them, here are three players I hope will still be in the Met organization after December 10th.
C Kevin Parada:
A first-round pick by the Mets in 2022, the road hasn’t exactly been a smooth one for Parada. He struggled through most of his four MiLB seasons since being drafted. His first full Double-A season in 2024 was a disaster as he hit just .214 and had an OPS of .663. He fell off the Mets’ top-30 prospect list by the time the 2025 season began, and many were already labeling him a bust.
In 2025, though, Parada finally began to show some signs of why the Mets made him a first-round selection four years ago. Now at 24 years old, Parada lit Double-A on fire in June with an OPS of .977 along with four home runs and 14 RBIs. He stayed hot all summer long for Binghamton, and in August, he batted .304 with an OPS of .866. Suddenly, as the Mets began to have issues at the Major League level at catcher, there were actually fans on social media calling for the red-hot Parada to be called up to the big club.
While that never happened, he did earn a promotion in September to Triple-A Syracuse. He would regress in Syracuse, as he batted just .196 in his 16-game campaign. Was that the last the Met organization will see of Parada? I hope not. He showed a lot of promise and some flashes of greatness this season. If the Mets can survive the Rule 5 Draft with Parada still on their roster, it might be an underrated blessing, and I’d like to see Parada get one more shot at making the Big Leagues in 2026.
RHP Joel Díaz :
Díaz has been in the Mets system since 2021, when he was just 17 years old. Some prospect nerds still remember his dominant season in the DSL that year, where he pitched in 50 innings, struck out 63 batters, and had an otherworldly ERA of just 0.54.
The next levels would prove more challenging for Díaz. He was roughed up in 2022, his first full season in Single-A, with an ERA of 5.86 in 51 innings pitched. Things would get worse the following season as Díaz spent all of 2023 on the IL.
Díaz came into 2025 at just 21 years old and received a promotion to High-A Brooklyn. Here, Díaz showed signs of his dominance back in 2021. In 106 innings pitched, Díaz was second in team ERA at 3.80 and in strikeouts with 98. He also showed improvement in his control, allowing just 25 walks all season. In the Mets' pitching-rich system, Díaz doesn’t crack into the top-30 prospect list, but he certainly has a ton of promise given his age and what we’ve seen this season from him.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a team doesn’t take a flier out on Díaz. He’s young and coming off his best full professional season. If the Mets can keep him in the organization, he might be just another member of an impressive pitching crop rising through their farm system.
RHP Saul García:
When looking at the entire Met system in 2025, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better season than the one that Saul García put together. Across High-A and Double-A, García made 38 appearances, pitched in 47 innings, and had an ERA of just 1.70. He faced a total of 202 batters and allowed a home run to just three of them. His 1.32 ERA for Binghamton helped the team win its first Eastern League title in over a decade.
This season was a revelation for García, who, up until 2025, had struggled in the Minors since joining the Mets system in 2021. However, this year, the Mets opted to use him as a reliever instead of a starter, and the experiment couldn’t have gone better. The Mets left him unprotected in next week’s draft, and now will have to wait and see if García’s turnaround continues in their organization, or if they will have to watch his next chapter on another franchise.
Honorable Mentions:
RHP Calvin Ziegler: Injuries have unfortunately plagued the Mets’ 2021 second-round selection. Ziegler is coming into 2026 healthy, and we’ll see if any other organization wants to take a chance on the 22-year-old Canadian righty.
RHP Trey McLoughlin: Another solid reliever in the Mets’ pipeline, he struggled in 2025 to the tune of a 4.09 ERA in Double-A Binghamton, but dominated in 2024 with a 1.89 Double-A ERA.
12 comments:
I’d probably be most concerned with Saul Garcia getting picked by a team with small pockets and lousy pitching.
Me too
I'm afraid 😨 he is a goner
Parada could also be at risk - teams are always looking for catching and Kevin was a #1 pick. On the bright side, the Mets currently have 37 players listed on their 40-man roster so there is room to add some other team's unprotected gem in the rough.
why were these three players not on the AAA protected list?
Agreed, Garcia looks the most likely to be absconded. As far as Parada goes, his saving grace is he sucks as a catcher.
Someone mentioned yesterday about giving him a shot at 1B/DH. Sounds interesting to me. Todd Zeile comparison.
I want Parada to go to a team that the Mets are trying to beat getting in the playoffs.
Job will be much easier if ole Kevin is behind THEIR plate
Because
They probably were. That list is your 40 plus 38 more, hence 78 players. Certainly Garcia was on they list, but I too worry about the Rule 5 with him.
Remember, a team has to have any player drafted in the majors ALL year, and Parada isn’t easy to keep with a weak arm. Garcia, they can hide better but not sure his control is palpable.
The Mets have Alvarez and Torrens NOW and four better catching prospects than a hitting stiff that can't throw
Not 1B or DH potential
Only LO
He is not going to throw a lot of runners out.
Trade him to Philly
Put Benge, Morabito, Jett, and Ewing on the basepaths
Boogy woogy
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