In 2020 the Mets drafted Pete Crow-Armstrong, J.T. Ginn, Isaiah Greene, Anthony Walters, Matthew Dyer and Eric Orze. Pete was traded for Javier Baez, J.T. was traded for Chris Bassitt, Isaiah Greene was traded Francisco Lindor, Anthony Walters was released and Matthew Dyer was traded for Rich Hill. That means the only player still left from the 2020 draft is Eric Orze.
Did you think of that Will Smith gif of him looking around the empty living room? Us too.
Due to the pandemic, last year was the first year that Orze saw professional baseball action and he split his time evenly-ish between Brooklyn, Binghamton and Syracuse. First in Brooklyn he posted a 4.05 ERA over 13 games and 20.0 innings. Then in Binghamton he posted a 2.60 ERA over 11 games and 17.1 innings. He posted his best ERA, 2.19, in Syracuse over 10 games and 12.1 innings. In Brooklyn he was basically the average age in the league, in Binghamton he was 1.7 years younger than the average player. In Syracuse he was 4.0 years younger than the average player. As he faced older and better players, he got better!
Orze is also a double cancer survivor, beating cancer twice while he was in college. I’m hoping that we hear more of his personal story throughout spring training this year, especially if he sees work during SNY broadcasts.
Eric Orze has gotten better at each level of the Mets organization last year. The 24-year old falls into the prospect category for NRI’s. If he picks up this season where he left off in Syracuse, he’ll force the issue to see some time on the mound in Queens this year.
