3 Rule 5 draft eligible pitchers the NY Mets should keep an eye on

2) Shane Smith

Not many nondrafted free agents pan out into quality Major Leaguers. But Shane Smith has a chance to be an outlier. The Milwaukee Brewers signed Smith after the 2021 draft. He’s steadily made his way up through their minor league system but is coming off an outstanding season where he spent the entire year in the upper levels of the minor leagues.

Smith pitched most of his frames at Double-A, where he had a 3.08 ERA, 2.88 FIP, and 1.05 WHIP in 87.2 innings. The right-hander worked as a swing-man, starting 16 of his 27 total appearances. Smith’s peripherals were great. He fell just short of a 30% strikeout rate at 29.9%. His walk rate clocked in at 7.3%, and his HR/9 ratio was 0.62. Smith ended the year at Triple-A, where he pitched 6.2 innings, only allowed two earned runs on three walks, and struck out seven.

Smith has a three-pitch mix. His four-seam fastball sits around 94-95 MPH, while his cutter sits in the low 90s. Then there’s his low-80s curveball. Both his curveball and four-seam fastball project as plus offerings per FanGraphs. Baseball America notes that Smith would likely work better as a reliever, but he did very well this past season working out of the rotation.