Grading how Atlanta Braves NL East rivals navigated the 2020 draft

Grading Atlanta Braves rivals:  the M’s

MIAMI MARLINS

The Miami Marlins left no doubt about what they wanted out of this draft. With an extra compensation pick, they chose six players and all of them are pitchers.

The mild surprise here was in taking Minnesota’s Max Meyer (3M?) 3rd overall. A RHP, has the stuff worthy of the selection, though many expected that Asa Lacy would be their choice here.

This pick may have hinged on a prior agreement, though, as Meyer already has a contract set up with Miami for just under the $7.2 million slot value.

Miami’s other picks came at positions 40, 61, 75, 104, and 134 and were used to take:

• LHP Dax Fulton (High school)
• RHP Kyle Nicolas (Ball State)
• RHP Zach McCambley (Coastal Carolina)
• LHP Jake Eder (Vanderbilt)
• RHP Kyle Hurt (Southern Cal)

Perhaps the Marlins were running short on ink for their printers and deliberately chose players with short names. The other bit of bizarre levity here is in taking a “Max”, a “Dax”, and a “Zach”. Oh, and there’s already a “Brax” (Braxton Garrett) in their system. too.

All that aside, watch out for the Marlins:  they are definitely beefing up their minor league system and they are using the Atlanta Braves formula of building around starting pitching.

GRADE:  A-.  Can they hit on most of these guys?  There’s lots of consistency risk as you go further down the list (no real shock there).  There’s also a lot of high upside potential.

The choice of Meyer over Lacy may have been financially driven, but it’s also splitting hairs a bit in taking him over Lacy.  Either way, they’ve got a good one at the top, and the quantity of players can’t hurt.

NEW YORK METS

The New York Mets had an interesting draft, and chose the best outfield defender available in the first round: Pete Crow-Armstrong. This is a kid from North Hollywood, CA with part-time actors as parents who gets to cross the country to be introduced in New York City. Interesting culture shift, for sure, and you do have to wonder if this reaction was more about the moment or more about the Mets getting him:

https://twitter.com/genymets/status/1270921940186865666

Crow-Armstrong has been said to have perhaps the only chance in the entire draft class to be a future Gold Glove winner. If so, he may have to do that over Cristian Pache at the same position, but we’ll see about that down the road.

The Mets definitely have a long-term CF need here, and this pick seems to address that directly, though it will require some time before he hits the majors… especially if he can’t hit enough.

Beyond that, New York went all over the diamond with their picks:

• RHP JT Ginn (Mississippi State)
• OF Isaiah Greene (High School)
• SS Anthony Walters (San Diego St)
• C Matthew Dyer (Arizona)
• RHP Eric Orze (U. New Orleans)

Ginn is said to be (perhaps) a tougher signing opportunity for New York, as he can return to school next year. Whether the Mets choose to push the issue or simply punt the pick to 2021 remains to be seen. More on that in a sec.

He’s got a 99 mph fastball and excellent slider, but he also blew out his elbow early this year. The trick will be whether he thinks 2nd round money is enough or whether he bets on himself to recover and have a useful 2021 season – which probably won’t be a full season – after rehabbing. Might be a decent strategy by the Mets either way it goes, but the expectation is that he does get signed.

GRADE:  D if they fail to sign either Ginn or Crow-Armstrong; B if they sign both.  Their last 3 (all low-ranked) picks are obviously intended to save money to sign the top two guys, so they are certainly going to try hard to get both signed.

So they are going for broke on just 2 picks… that ploy is definitely a theme as we progress through the division.