2024 MLB Draft Day 1 Recap: Mets Go College Route

On Sunday, the New York Mets had their first MLB First-Year Player Draft with David Stearns as president of baseball operations and Kris Gross as head of their amateur scouting department. You only get one chance to have a good first draft. While it is early on in the three-day process, the Mets made two intriguing selections on Day 1 that brought a power bat and a pitcher with a power slider into the organization.

The night started with the 19th pick when the Mets took Carson Benge, a two-way player (outfielder and right-handed pitcher) out of Oklahoma State. The slot value for that pick is at approximately $4.22 million. Of course, the organization took another two-way player from the Cowboys in Nolan McLean during last year’s draft (Round 3).

During his meeting with the media on Sunday night, Gross mentioned that the Mets will talk with Benge about his future in pro ball, but they do envision him as a strong outfield player.

VP of Amateur Scouting, Kris Gross, said that the #Mets think that Carson Benge can be a five-tool player long-term.

Added they will have conversations with him about if he will both hit and pitch.

— James Villani (@jvillani08) July 15, 2024

In 61 games as a hitter last year, the 21-year-old left-handed hitter had a slash line of .335/.444/.645 with 18 home runs, 64 RBIs, and a 1.109 OPS. In the Big 12, he was second in runs scored (72), third in OPS, hits (83) and home runs, and fourth in slugging percentage.

According to MLB Pipeline, Benge has strong potential with his swing and one of the things that he worked on in the spring this year was getting more flyballs, which led to an increase in power compared to 2023 (7 home runs in 59 games).

“Few college hitters in this class can match Benge’s combination of bat-to-ball skills and high exit velocities. A left-handed hitter, he controls the strike zone and uses the opposite field exceptionally well. He should have solid power thanks to his combination of hitting ability and bat speed, and he did a better job of turning on and lifting more pitches as this spring progressed.”

When Benge was at the MLB Combine back in June, the 6’1″, 184 lb. player talked about how hitting is his favorite thing to do because of the feeling he gets when he puts barrel on the ball.

“Hitting the ball is my favorite thing. Nothing can top that. Just being able to barrel it is nothing I have ever felt. Throwing is a close second.”

Speaking of the mound, Benge appeared in 18 games (four starts) this year and went 3-2 with a 3.16 ERA and had 44 strikeouts to 11 walks in 37 innings of work.

It will already help Benge that he was a roommate in college with MacLean, so he has someone to rely upon for his ups and downs when his professional season gets underway. When you consider that many draft experts did not think Benge would even make it to the Mets at the 19th pick, he is a player fans should be excited about for both the two-way aspect of his game and the power that is continuing to improve by the day.

With their second-round pick (pick 46), the Mets turned their focus to the mound in Duke left-hander Jonathan Santucci (slot value of $2.03 million).

This past season, the 21-year-old left-hander was 6-1 with a 3.41 ERA over the course of 13 starts. He had 90 strikeouts to 36 walks in 58 innings of work. He has battled his fair share of injuries in his collegiate career, whether it be having surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow in 2022, a fractured elbow in 2023, or having a rib injury during the latter portion of this year.

With that being said, this is a pitcher that has been deemed by many to have a lot of upside for not only a fastball that is around 92-96 miles-per-hour in velocity, but he also had a wipe-out slider that is one of the better sliders in the class.

“Santucci misses a lot of bats with his 92-96 mph fastball, creating impressive carry and running action on a flat approach angle from a high arm slot. His low-80s slider can be a wipeout pitch with two-plane break at its best. His fading mid-80s changeup gives him a third weapon, though he doesn’t use it very often and can struggle to land it in the zone.” (MLB Pipeline)

In an interview with Prospects Live, Santucci dug more into his pitch arsenal and the 6’2″, 205 lb. left-hander mentioned how he tends to use that slider to get hitters out on a consistent basis:

“I feel like everything plays off my fastball really well. When I am able to establish my fastball is when I’m at my best, especially in the top half of the zone with the carry I get. Utilize that as much as possible and be able to use my slider a lot, especially this year to manipulate the shape of it a little bit. a little slower, a little firmer based on the hitter. The changeup is the pitch I have been working on the most over the last year.”

Like Benge, Santucci was doing some hitting in college in addition to pitching, but he went to being solely a pitcher this past year. While the Mets wouldn’t solely be targeting two-way players, they do value the athleticism in what it takes to be able to do both hitting and pitching at the collegiate level.

It’s tough to grade any draft until many years from now, but the potential for Benge and Santucci as they enter their professional career is something Mets fans should be excited about.

Rounds 3-10 will take place Monday afternoon, beginning at 2 p.m. ET over on MLB.com. Keep it here at MetsMerized and Mets Minors for all the latest coverage of the 2024 MLB Draft.

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