New York Mets best first-round draft pick at every position

At each position, these are the best New York Mets selected in the first round of the MLB Draft.

The MLB Draft is a team’s chance to add young talent to the roster and grow them in the farm system. The New York Mets have made some notably great picks in the first round, adding some of the franchise’s top players along the way.

For the roster I’m going to discuss here, that’s exactly the crop of players we’re dealing with—first-round selections. Anyone taken in the first-round, including the supplemental picks, is available for what we could call “the all-time first-round draft pick lineup.” Only players drafted by the Mets will actually be considered.

You won’t find guys like Steve Chilcott on this list. However, as you’ll quickly notice, some positions aren’t as strong as others.

Pitcher – Dwight Gooden

Dwight Gooden is one of the best pitchers in Mets history and an easy choice to represent first-round picks in this lineup. The fifth overall pick in the 1982 draft dazzled everyone early on in his Mets career with a Rookie of the Year in 1984 and Cy Young in 1985.

Gooden’s overall Mets totals include 157 wins and a 3.10 ERA. These hardly do him justice for what he accomplished in the earliest years of his career. His 1985 campaign, for instance, remains one of the best by a pitcher of any era.

Catcher – Kevin Plawecki

The Mets take a dip behind the plate from the star power on the mound. Not many of their first-round drafted catchers did much with the team in the major leagues. Kevin Plawecki hardly scratches the surface of what some of the other names on this list achieved.

Plawecki’s four seasons with the Mets included only a part-time job and resulted in a .218 batting average across 804 plate appearances. As the 35th overall pick in the 2012 draft, he’s one of those players who never reached his potential in New York. Amazingly, he’s still the best catcher the Mets ever took in round one.