2023 Mets Draft: An introduction to Major League Baseball’s draft

On Sunday, July 9th, Major League Baseball will host its 58th annual Rule 4 draft, better known as the first-year player draft. The Mets ended the 2022 season with a 101-61 record, making them eligible to make the 22nd overall pick, but because their 2022 payroll exceeded the competitive balance tax threshold by more than $40 million dollars, their first selection dropped by 10 picks, meaning that their first selection will instead be the 32nd overall pick.

Their second round selection will be the 56 overall pick. In the third round, the Mets will be getting two picks, the 91st overall selection and then an additional pick, the 101st overall selection, due to their failure to sign Brandon Sproat in 2022. Their fourth round pick will be the 123rd overall selection and following that, they will be receiving two picks in the qualifying free agent compensation pick round, 134th overall for losing Jacob deGrom to the Texas Rangers and 135th overall for losing Chris Bassitt to the Toronto Blue Jays. Rounding out the first five rounds, they will then make the 159th overall selection in the fifth round.

The Mets will have a total bonus pool allotment of $8,440,400. The 32nd overall pick has an MLB-assigned slot value of $2,607,500, the 56th overall pick has an MLB-assigned slot value of $1,474,500, the 91st overall pick has an MLB-assigned slot value of $747,600, the 101st overall pick has an MLB-assigned slot value of $666,500, the 123rd overall pick has an MLB-assigned slot value of $536,500, the 134th overall pick has an MLB-assigned slot value of $483,000, the 135th overall pick has an MLB-assigned slot value of $478,200, and the 159th overall pick has an MLB-assigned slot value of $378,000.

Their sixth round selection, the 186th overall pick, has an MLB-assigned slot value of $299,800, their seventh round selection, the 216th overall pick, has an MLB-assigned slot value of $235,000, their eighth round selection, the 246th overall pick, has an MLB-assigned slot value of $192,900, their ninth round selection, the 276th overall pick, has an MLB-assigned slot value of $175,100, and their tenth round selection, the 306th overall pick, has an MLB-assigned slot value of $165,800.

In order to be eligible to be selected in the 2023 MLB Draft, a player must meet the criteria applicable to them:

• Be a resident of, or have attended an educational institution in, the United States, Canada, or a U.S. territory such as Puerto Rico. Players from other countries are not subject to the draft and can be signed by any team unless they have attended an educational institution in the aforementioned areas.
• Have never signed a major or minor league contract.
• High school players are eligible only after graduation, and if they have not attended college.
• Players at four-year colleges and universities are eligible three years after first enrolling in such an institution, or after their 21st birthdays (whichever occurs first).
• Junior and community college players are eligible to be drafted at any time.

At the beginning of March, Baseball America polled 15 MLB scouting departments asking the quality of the 2023 MLB Draft class. According to those who were asked, the “overall talent” of the 2023 draft class was average-to-above-average as compared to past years, with the plurality of scouting departments considering the class to have more overall talent than average. The class had an average amount of “impact talent”, with two teams considering the 2023 draft class containing below-average impact talent, three teams considering the class containing above-average impact talent, and the rest considering it to contain an average amount as compared to past years. The scouting departments considered the 2023 class to have an above-average amount of “overall depth”, thanks to the amount of high school seniors in 2020 who were not drafted in the COVID-shortened 2020 MLB Draft and went on to attend college. Hitting at both the high school and college levels were considered generally better than those available in years past while pitching at both the high school and college levels were considered about average as compared to years past.