This Mets Minor Leaguer Big on RBIs

Don’t expect the Mets 2016 college draftees to start excelling with the teams they’re assigned to. Even a player who had success with a top college team can struggle in his first pro season, as happened with David Thompson.

Drafted fourth in 2015 from Miami, he received a $425,000 bonus. Thompson played his first season for the Brooklyn Cyclones, hitting only .218. 

Here’s what he said about his performance in his first season of pro ball:

I was tired, but I just had a bad year swinging at some bad pitches . . . I didn’t play too well.

This season he’s playing for the Columbia Fireflies in the South Atlantic League, a Class A league.

Here is what he said about his current play:

Just trying to buy into the Mets’ approach, which I’ve still got a lot to work on . . . I’m still getting myself out too much by swinging at bad pitches. But I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at swinging at my pitch instead of a pitcher’s pitch. I’m still working on that. I’m still chasing too many balls. But that’s where I’m working the most.

Currently, he’s hitting .294 with four homers. He’s leading the league in RBIs (48) — the third highest among all Mets minor leaguers — but has a high strikeout to walk ratio (42:13).

He was the only third baseman drafted in 2015 that the team signed. In 2014 the team drafted and signed only one third baseman, Eudor Garcia, who’s currently serving an 80-game suspension for PED use, and in 2013 did not draft any. In 2016, the Mets drafted three third basemen: Blake Tiberi, Jay Jabs, and Rylan Thomas.