Steve Sica- Should the Mets call up this "Draft Bust?"

Photo courtesy of Bronson Harris

In the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft, the Mets held the 11th overall pick. They chose catcher Kevin Parada out of Georgia Tech University. 

Coming off his second season with Georgia Tech, Parada put up numbers worthy of such a high draft selection. In 60 games, he batted .360, smashed 26 home runs, and collected 88 RBIs while sporting an OPS of 1.162. In 258 at-bats, he struck out just 32 times and drew 30 walks.

After the Mets drafted him, they sent him to Low-A St. Lucie. In his small sample size (10 games) Parada would go 8-for-29 (.276 AVG) while putting up an OPS of .877. Not a bad start for the then 20-year-old backstop.

His first full season, though, saw him struggle as he tried adjusting to MiLB pitching. Across Single-A through Double-A, Parada would bat just .248 with an OPS of .751. What was more concerning was that after that season, Parada would go to the Arizona Fall League. A place that's should be a hitters paradise. His numbers tanked as he batted just .189 with an OPS of .611. His defensive numbers lagged behind too.

In 2024, things wouldn't get much better as he batted .214 in a full season with Binghamton. While fellow draft class pick, Jett Williams rocketed up the Met prospect rankings. By the end of 2024, Parada had disappeared from the top-30 Met lists.

Coming into 2026, there were questions if Parada would survive the Rule 5 Draft. No team picked him up and he remained a Met.

Flash forward to the present day, Parada is suddenly having a hot streak in Triple-A Syracuse, batting .385 and has gotten a hit in every one of his seven games since being called up. He's sporting an OPS of .916. As the Met catching depth remains weak at the Major League level, Alvarez is on the IL, Torrens is a serviceable starter for now, but Hayden Senger isn't quite cutting it at the Major League level. Love his story of how long he waited for his shot at the pros, even working as a clerk at his local Whole Foods, but it might be time for the Mets to look in another direction for a backup.

They have two options. Find someone off the waiver wire. Somewhere, the Mets haven't exactly found a lot of luck in. Andy Ibanez, for starters. Or they could promote from within. And why not give their former first round draft pick a shot?

Now, for starters, Parada's success is a very small sample size, just seven games. Before his promotion, he was putting up abysmal numbers in Binghamton. Parada isn't a stranger to bursts of success at the MiLB level. There were similar talks late last summer of calling him up, as he had a hot streak in Binghamton, but it never materialized, and once the Mets called him up to Syracuse, he hit under the Mendoza line for the rest of 2025. 

The 2026 Mets aren't exactly lighting the World on fire. They've had some awful waiver wire selections. A call-up for Kevin Parada could be in the cards. It would be temporary, as Alvarez would be due back soon, but at this point, why not roll the dice on the Georgia Tech product?