Player Profile - Thomas Szapucki

Thomas Szapucki, Syracuse Mets - Photo by Herm Card, Herm4444@gmail.com

Background, Stats, Videos.

Background: 

Thomas Szapucki, Starting Pitcher, Bats Right, Throws Left, DOB 6/12/1996 in Toms River, NJ. Acquired in the 2015 June Amateur Draft - Round: 5, Pick: 14, Overall: 149 from William T. Dwyer HS (West Palm Beach, FL). 

Injuries have been Thomas Szapucki’s downfall.  His stellar 2016 season where he struck out 82 batters in 52 innings was cut short due to a back injury.  He had shoulder problems in 2017 and then later in the season had to be shut down due to Tommy John surgery.  He missed all of 2018.  

In 2019 he split time with Columbia and St. Lucie and made one start for Binghamton in August.  His 2019 line: 1-3, 2.63 ERA, 21 games, 18 starts, 61 innings, 72 Ks, 26 walks, 1.22 WHIP.  

Early in the 2021 season on a Zoom Call, Syracuse Manager Chad Kreuter noted Szapucki's lack on minor league innings due to injury, stated that he needed to just pitch more but was very close to the majors..."has to work on pitch selection, location, knowing his strengths...but as he showed last weekend against Luke Voit...he can get good hitters out."    

Thomas Szapucki, Syracuse Mets - Photo by Herm Card, Herm4444@gmail.com

He threw 8 games for Syracuse, including 3 outings with no earned runs,  and was able to make his major league debut on June 30th going 3.2 innings in relief giving up 6 runs, 7 hits, 2 HRs.  

NY Post: Thomas Szapucki had one strange debut for Mets. "He retired the great Ronald Acuna Jr. twice but surrendered 400-plus-foot home runs to Ehire Adrianza and Ozzie Albies...Szapucki only threw 179 ²/₃ career innings in the minors before he was pressed into action."

After that he was sent back to Syracuse, threw two more games and then...

NY Post: "season-ending ulnar nerve transposition surgery"

Mets.com: "The procedure is not uncommon for pitchers in the years following Tommy John surgery, which can damage the sensitive ulnar nerve. Jacob deGrom underwent an ulnar transposition late in 2016, when doctors repositioned the nerve within his arm. Steven Matz did the same in '17. In both cases, the pitchers missed minimal time."

Before the 2020 Season Tom had Thomas Szapucki as his number #6 prospect.  Mack had him as his #4 prospect.  Before the 2021 Season, FANGRAPHS had Thomas as the #10 Mets Prospect.  Currently Mets.com ranks him as the #20 prospect.  Tom recently ranked him as the #33 Mets prospect.

For 2022, the hope is that Thomas Szapucki can pitch on a regular basis, get the innings he needs to develop consistency with all his pitches, and be able to come to Flushing at some point to help the MLB team.

When healthy, Szapucki has been very good.  

Let's hope for health - and success - in 2022.

Thomas Szapucki’s Baseball Savant page: "Szapucki relies on 4 pitches. 4-Seam Fastball (64.6%) Changeup (25.6%) Curveball (6.1%) Sinker (3.7%)." 

Thomas Szapucki’s FANGRAPHS page:

Fastball	Curveball	Changeup	Command	FV
50 / 55	60 / 60	40 / 45	40 / 45	40

Mack's Mets: Thomas Szapucki Named SAL Pitcher of the Week 6/26/17;

Joe DeMayo SNY.TV: Deep Dive on Thomas Szapucki, 7/5/2019 "Prior to getting Tommy John surgery, Szapucki had made progress with two plus pitches -- his fastball that had reportedly hit 97 mph, and his curveball that will sit around the 80-82 mph range with a very high spin rate." 

Stats: 

Standard Pitching -

2021 Pitching Splits -

Videos:

Strike 3️⃣! @ThomasSzapucki gets a strikeout to end the 5th inning. #LGM pic.twitter.com/nEZSCPuZbf

— Mets Farm Report (@MetsFarmReport) March 1, 2021

.@ThomasSzapucki was sitting ‘em down last night. 🪑 pic.twitter.com/eS2M7E8l34

— Mets Farm Report (@MetsFarmReport) May 8, 2021

You Tube: Mets top prospect Thomas Szapucki could fill multiple pitching staff roles | Mets Prospective

The Morning Report 6.10.2015 | d'Arnaud Returns, Parnell Returns Too, Matz Promotion Coming Soon, Solid Day 2 of MLB Draft for Mets

Joe D. | Metsmerized Online-  With the Mets ridiculously challenged for offense, the team should get a nice boost to the lineup when Travis d’Arnaud is activated from the disabled list. Terry Collins said he hopes d’Arnaud will hit the ground running. Don’t we all? “You can’t have spring training,” he said. “We’re in the hunt right now and you can’t afford to go 10 days, two weeks to wait until a guy gets ready.” D’Arnaud, who was hitting .317/.356/.538 with two homers and 10 RBIs in 11 games, was the team’s leading run producer went he went down.

(Chris Soto: Man...talk about a sight for sore eyes. Getting d'Arnaud back today is going to be huge considering his OPS output before he got hurt was 320 points! higher than Plawecki's performance. He should slot nicely into the #2 hole where he was hitting .333 with a 1.195 OPS before getting injured.)


Michael Baron | Just Mets- Bobby Parnell completed his rehab assignment on Tuersday night, throwing a scoreless seventh inning for the Binghamton Mets on against the Bowie Bay Sox with a walk and two strikeouts. Parnell will join the Mets at Citi Field tomorrow night, and be activated in a few days. Presumably, Parnell will be eased into higher leverage situations, and will probably have to earn his way into a prominent role in this bullpen again. As for who goes down, the logical conclusion to draw is it will be Jack Leathersich. They’re carrying three left-handed relievers, and at the very least Parnell would restore balance to the crowded bullpen on the right side.


(Chris Soto: Well like it or not, Parnell's rehab assignment expires after tonight's game so the club has to call him up. Is he ready? Probably not, but at least Parnell's last 3 outings have been much better than his earlier Binghamton performances. I expect that Parnell will only be used in low leverage situations to start. Down big or Up big, 6th inning fill in work, etc.)


Scot Cohen | Amazin Avenue- Las Vegas left-hander Steven Matz could be promoted to the Mets in the next three weeks. The biggest hurdle for the Mets to install Matz in the rotation could be finding a trade partner to move Dillon Gee or Jon Niese, or possibly even both. Gee has recently been sent to the bullpen and Niese struggled this season. Matz has been tremendous at Triple-A, where his 1.94 ERA leads the Pacific Coast League. He also leads the PCL in strikeouts with 75 in 74 1/3 innings. He's allowed just a .207 average to opposing hitters and has posted a 1.103 WHIP. 

(Chris Soto: This notion that Matz is going to be promoted 3 weeks from now really picked up steam when Joel Sherman [I think] asked a Mets official if after the All-Star Break was a realistic call-up date. The unnamed official responded with, "oh, I think he'll be up here before July 1st." Beat writers and bloggers have taken that date and run with it. HERE IS MY OPINION...Matz is scheduled to start tomorrow night for the 51's....LHSP Jonathan Niese IS ALSO scheduled to pitch tomorrow night. Matz currently only needs 5 IP to get past the "150+ IP above A+" internal rule that the Mets have. All this leads me to this statement....June 11th, 2015 will be the last start Matz makes for AAA Las Vegas and he will be pitching for the MLB Mets on June 16th. AGAIN....THIS IS MY EDUCATED OPINIONATED GUESS.


Mack's Mets Draft Coverage- In case you were living under a rock yesterday, The Mets added 8 new players yesterday via the MLB Rule IV Draft. Here they all are along the stories/information Mack posted from yesterday.

3rd Round - LHP Max Wotell - Marvin Ridge H.S. (NC)
4th Round - 3B David Thompson - University of Miami [Junior]
5th Round - LHP Thomas Szapucki - William T. Dwyer H.S. (FL)
6th Round - RHP Chase Ingram - Hillsborough CC (FL) [JUCO]
7th Round - RHP Corey Taylor - Texas Tech University [Senior]
8th Round - C Patrick Mazelka - Stetson University [Junior]
9th Round - OF Kevin Kaczmarski - University of Evansville [Senior]
10th Round - RHP Witt Haggard - Delta State University [Senior]

(Chris Soto: I like what the Mets are doing knowing that they have a limited signing bonus pool. They are not shying away from the tough sign guys....Instead, So far they are balancing high upside, high cost High School Arms with easily signable, and low cost college bats. I love the 3rd, 5th, and 6th round guys specifically. The Mets farm system is starved for left handed upside arms as currently the only guys in the system are at the very bottom in Blake Taylor [Kingsport] and Adrian Almeida [GCL Mets]. The club needs a boost in this department and both of these guys already have plus velocity from the left side. As for our 6th round, Chase Ingram was considered one of, if not, the top Junior College arm in the draft. Ingram was among the leaders in strikeouts, ERA and wins and posseses an outstanding curveball. The fastball velocity is pretty meh [91-92mph] but if the guy knows how to pitch, he'll be successful.)

2015 Draft Profile - Thomas Szapucki, LHP, Dwyer HS (FL) - updated 6-5

6-4-  MaxiPrep ranks Dwyer (FL) High School LHP Thomas Szapucki as the 11th best player in the Class of 2015. He also was the top lefty on the list.

Stat line for first 20 innings pitched in 2014:  29-K, 0.70

Basically a two-pitch guy with a 88-92, 94 fastball and a + curve

6-5  -  MaxiPrep ranks Szapucki as the 5th top high school sophomore of 2015