The Mets first round pick from last year’s draft made some noise in the minors last year and earned an invite to major league camp this spring.
Kevin has spent the off-season being celebrated on overall in baseball top prospect lists across the league:
- #50 Baseball America
- #64 Baseball Prospectus
- #103 Fan Graphs
- #36 MLB.com
Parada is currently the #3 Mets prospect in the system according to MLB.com with an estimated major league debut around 2025. The 21-year old was drafted out of Georgia Tech with the 11th overall pick and has been projected as top catching prospect since he graduated high school. He was a hitting machine in college slashing .341/.420/.636.
Parada only played in a few games last season, getting 55 plate appearances, but during that time he impressed with a .275/.455/.425 line. As he spends more time in the minors, the power will come (he was a little over a year younger than the average player in St. Lucie last season). His real strength though is his ability to get on base.
Parada is still far away from the major leagues. With Francisco Álvarez in the wings there is also no need to rush Parada through the system. In addition to Álvarez, the Mets have two major league starting catchers already in Nido and Narváez. Michael Perez is also in Mets camp as the veteran back up catcher. This is all to say Parada is on his own time clock and spring this year is an opportunity for Parada to build skills with the major leaguers and get some reps in against higher quality opponents.
Top prospects in Mets camp are always fun. We looking forward to seeing Parada play in some games and see this hitting machine in action!
