Mets first-round draft pick with the most games played will surprise you

Three players the New York Mets selected in the first-round of the MLB Draft appeared in 1600 games or more in the major leagues. Could you name all three?

The answers are going to surprise you.

Hubie Brooks played in 1645 MLB games. He was passed by Jeromy Burnitz with 1694 games before he hung up his cleats. One Mets first-round pick, a guy the team took first overall, played even more. It’s none other than Tim Foli.

The Mets first-round pick with the most games played is Tim Foli

Foli played in 1696 games in his major league career. It’s only two more than Burnitz but still the most. What’s so unique about this is that Foli wasn’t a starter in the major leagues on a regular basis. He did have the advantage of making his MLB debut at only 19-years-old which helped him make appearances in 16 different seasons.

Among those 1696 games, 218 came as a member of the Mets the first 102 occurred prior to the trade that sent him to the Montreal Expos. The next 116 came when he returned in 1978 then stuck around for 3 more in 1979.

Foli passed 130 games played six times in his career. A good defensive shortstop throughout many of those years, he was a light-hitter with only 25 home runs in over 6500 plate appearances.

As far as first overall selections go, longevity is not the priority. Foli checked off that box but not much else. He was a lifetime .251/.283/.309 hitter. He had years ranging from the pretty good down to the outright awful.

Six different teams employed Foli on their major league roster throughout those 16 years. He played most of his games with the Expos, logging 710 total. The Pittsburgh Pirates were second with 365 and the California Angels were third with 238. Only the San Francisco Giants (104) and New York Yankees (61) let him get into fewer games than the Mets.

At your next Mets trivia night, when this question comes up, you can thank us for passing along this Foli knowledge nobody could have accidentally guessed.