The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of activity across Major League Baseball rosters, but a move the New York Mets didn’t make may wind up having as much impact as the moves they did.
Tuesday was the deadline to add eligible prospects to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft next month. The Mets made one such move by designating pitcher Frankie Montas for assignment to clear space for outfield prospect Nick Morabito.
However, the Mets’ 2022 first-round pick wasn’t quite as lucky, and now, he’ll be available for the other 29 teams to poach, with some notable conditions.
As the transactions log reflects, Mets Triple-A catcher Kevin Parada was not elevated to the 40-man roster. Because he was drafted out of college and has been in the minors for parts of four seasons, Parada is now Rule 5-eligible, as Baseball America confirmed on Wednesday.
Parada, 24, was the 11th overall pick in the MLB Draft three years ago out of Georgia Tech. He was still ranked as the No. 9 prospect in New York’s system by MLB Pipeline as recently as last year, but has recently fallen out of the site’s Top 30.
In 108 games this past season (92 in Double-A, 16 in Triple-A), Parada slashed .245/.319/.407 with 11 home runs and 57 RBIs. But the larger issue is his defense, as he was considered a bat-first catcher coming out of college, and he hasn’t been able to slow down the running game in the professional ranks.
Parada now heads to the player pool for the Rule 5 Draft, which takes place on Dec. 10 at the winter meetings. If he is selected, his new team will have to keep him on the active roster (or the injured list) for the entire season; otherwise, he will be returned to New York.
In some cases, prospects with high draft pedigrees or flashy organizational ranking are left unprotected because they’re still so far from the majors that teams bank on their competition not wanting to take the risk of carrying them on the active roster. But it would be easy to envision a rebuilding team that needs help at the catching position, taking a flier on Parada if they aren’t sold on their own prospect pipeline.
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