Tom Brennan - MY # 4 METS PROSPECT: TOM SZAPUCKI
It is a sad state of affairs for the Mets when a slot as high as my # 4 Mets prospect:
a) hardly pitched in 2017 and
b) will miss most or all of 2018 with Tommy John surgery.
A # 4 ranking assumes a full and healthy recovery, which may be too much to assume, frankly, but I woke up on the positive side of bed today.
After a 2015 5th round selection and a 2015 minors cameo, Thomas Matthew Szapucki was a supernova in 2016.
The 6'2" hard throwing lefty went 4-3, 1.38 in 9 starts in 2016. 52 innings, 26 hits allowed, 86 Ks in rookie ball - those are high school numbers, right? Better than the college numbers of #1 draft pick David Peterson this season, by comparison.
Yep, but the Szapucki euphoria of 2016 was short-lived.
He started only 6 games for Columbia in 2017, with early season disability, not starting his first game until early June.
Of course, I felt on June 25 that the old Szapucki was back:
A 6 inning start, 2 hits, no runs, 10 Ks. Whoosh!
But as with most things "Mets", that was followed very soon thereafter by injury and a shutdown after pitching just 2/3 of an inning in his final start on July 6. Followed, of course, by the dreaded TJ surgery in mid-July.
Looking ahead, maybe he gets into a few games in 2018, but hopefully in 2019 he starts a rapid post-Tommy John ascent similar to that of Jake deGrom. And becomes a star lefty starter for the Mets in 2020, with competition from lefties Peterson and Anthony Kay (who is in TJS recovery himself).
One can only hope. The last two guys I had high hopes for prior to their Tommy John surgeries were Luis Mateo and Marcos Molina. Luis never was quite the same afterwards and seems stuck in the high minors. Marcos returned well this year, but also seems to me not 100% as good (yet) as the pre-TJS potential he showed when he was the best pitcher in the NY Penn League in 2014.
Here's hoping for a great recovery and return, Mr. Szapucki.
5 comments:
Tom -
I love Szapucki and the announcement of him having to go under the knife did me in this year. Kay... Humphries... so much bad news.
You should have been a surgeon - walking into the OR, they could have blared Mack the Knife over the loudspeakers.
Yep, all these surgeries are terrible - I did not know whether to rank him 4th or leave him out of the top 50 altogether - I decided on optimism.
I don't let TJS get in my way of a prospect analysis. He was a prospect when he went under the knife and he will remain as one until proven wrong.
It once again calls to mind the Mets coaching and training operations. How is it that so many of the pitchers wind up under the knife unless they are putting undue strain on their arms under the supposedly watchful eyes of the development and conditioning people.
Loved this Kid... hope he bounces back but its a crap shoot now...
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