Biggest Mets busts drafted in the first round in franchise history

Baseball, especially, is a sport that relies heavily on its foundation, the farm system, that feeds prospects to the big league level. Organizations that thrive long-term are those that tend to scout well, draft efficiently, and build the team from the bottom up. The New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals, the two winningest teams in baseball history, have almost made an art form of it. The New York Mets, well, they don’t appear to have gotten the hang of it…yet.

When the Mets came into existence in 1962, ownership grabbed a hold of a number of old-time Yankees executives to build the operations of the organization. That group was led by a man named George Weiss.

But in order to draw attention to the young team, management sought to bring in big names in hopes of drawing big crowds. Unfortunately, some of those big names – like Duke Snider, Warren Spahn, Yogi Berra, Ken Boyer, and even Willie Mays – would be over the hill by the time they took the field in a Mets uniform.

A brief history of the Mets draft picks

The Major League Baseball draft didn’t actually come into existence until June of 1965, during the Mets fourth season. And the Mets were a young organization trying to get its footing. But the scouts are out there, scouring the country, and the outskirts, seeking talent. Are they not seeing the same thing that other scouts are seeing? Well, that’s sort of obvious.

But I sometimes wonder if it is nothing more than when we were kids and choosing up sides on the playground. As a captain, did you always select the best player? I know, at times, I didn’t. But I wasn’t choosing for a Major League baseball team when I was 10 years old.

Regardless of how you look at it, it’s a crapshoot. There have been some successful picks over the years like Jon Matlack, Darryl Strawberry, and Doc Gooden. And, more recently, there have been guys like David Wright, Michael Conforto, and Brandon Nimmo come out of the first round. But there have been a heck of a lot of duds in there too.

You begin to wonder what management was thinking when they made these decisions. Because just take a look at some of the first-round debacles – by position – over the years:

Mets Pitcher

Billy Traber was a first-round pick in the 2000 draft, 16th pick overall, out of Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, California. The 2000 draft was pretty much without name recognition in the first round. The only player of any significance who was selected immediately ahead of Traber was long-time Mets nemesis, Chase Utley.

Traber would never play for the Mets as he was eventually included as a player to be named later in the trade that brought Roberto Alomar from the Cleveland Indians. Traber was a college pitcher with a lot of promise but couldn’t translate that into big league success. He played a year for the Indians before suffering arm troubles and sitting out two full seasons. He bounced around to the Washington Nationals, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox before retiring with an ERA over 5.60.

Mets Catcher

Steve Chilcott was chosen No. 1 in the second free agent draft by the Mets in 1966 out of Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, California…chosen immediately before some guy from Arizona State University named Reggie. “Well, we need a catcher…” was what was told to everyone.

Chilcott dislocated his right shoulder when he dove back into the second base bag during his second season in the minor leagues, and was never the same. Chilcott never played a single game for the Mets nor any other team in the Major Leagues for that matter, and is one of only three overall first picks to never play a Major League baseball game. He is most known as the answer to a trivia question that has haunted Mets fans for many years.

Mets First baseman

Terence Long was drafted in the first round of the 1994 draft, the 20th pick overall, out of Stanhope Elmore High School in Millbrook, Alabama. Other players selected after Long were Aaron Boone, Tim Hudson, and J.D. Drew.

Long would come up for a cup of coffee, going hitless in three pinch-hitting appearances in 1999, before being included in the trade with the Oakland A’s that brought Kenny Rogers to the Mets at mid-season for their pennant drive. Long would go on to have a productive four years for the A’s after being moved to the outfield, sporting a .265 batting average with 15 home runs and 73 RBI. He would soon fizzle out spending the next three seasons with the San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals, and New York Yankees.

Mets Second baseman

Rich Puig was a first-round pick in the 1971 draft, 14th overall, out of Hillsborough High School in Tampa. It’s almost sickening to think about this particular selection. Puig was taken just ahead of future Hall of Famer Jim Rice. The Mets were always hard up for third basemen and they just happened to also pass on two guys named George Brett and Mike Schmidt.

Some other guys selected in that draft? Louisiana Lightning, Ron Guidry; some guy they used to call “Mex” named Keith Hernandez; and a shortstop out of South River, New Jersey named Joe Theismann. Yes, that Joe Theismann who was twisted into a pretzel one night by some big linebacker from the New York Giants named Lawrence Taylor.

Puig would make it to the big league team for four games in a September call-up, getting ten (10) at-bats with no hits in his short, very short, career before retiring from baseball at the age of 21.

Mets Shortstop

Reese Havens was a first-round selection in the 2008 draft, 22nd overall, out of the University of South Carolina. The 2008 draft had some pretty decent players who made it to the Major Leagues including Ike Davis with the Mets and some others like Aaron Hicks, Eric Hosmer, Pedro Alvarez, and Buster Posey. And it’s amazing how the Mets missed on two pitchers that were grabbed behind Havens – Lance Lynn and Gerrit Cole.

Havens would toil six years in the Mets minor leagues and never make it to the big club nor the big time at all. He retired at the age of 26 after struggling at Triple-A Las Vegas.

Mets Third baseman

Roy Staiger was the 24th selection of the first round of the secondary phase of the 1970 draft out of Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The names in that draft were fairly well-known – Bucky Dent and Darrell Porter were taken early, while others like Fred Lynn, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, and Dave Parker were taken slightly, just slightly later. Those guys fared pretty well.

Staiger would struggle going up through the minors for the Mets. But Triple-A Tidewater Tides manager Joe Frazier took a liking to him. And when Frazier was promoted to Mets manager, he insisted on installing Staiger at third base in 1975. He was hailed as the righthanded power guy who was finally going to be the stalwart at third base after Ed Charles (retired), Joe Foy (who knows what happened to him), Bob Aspromonte (bombed), and Jim Fregosi (over the hill former All-Star shortstop to failed attempt at third base) all failed to bring some stability to the position.

He, too, failed miserably – hitting a paltry four home runs in 446 at-bats over the course of a season and a half – and was replaced at third base when Joe Torre replaced Frazier at the helm. Staiger is another answer to a trivia question on this list, becoming a part of the first direct trade between the Mets and the Yankees.