Deep Dive on Mets prospect Drew Gilbert, who has All-Star potential

Mets outfield prospect Drew Gilbert has been tremendous for Double-A Binghamton since being acquired from the Astros in the Justin Verlander trade.

Here's a deep dive on the 22-year-old...

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Background

Gilbert was born in St. Paul, Minn., where he grew up a fan of the Twins and players like Joe Mauer. He was a two-way player in high school, but interestingly enough a lot of teams thought he was a pitcher over a hitter.

He attended Stillwater Area High School, where he was ranked as the No. 2 high school player in the state of Minnesota and the No. 282 ranked high school player in the nation by Perfect Game.

He was drafted in the 35^th round of the 2019 MLB Draft by his hometown Twins as a left-handed pitcher who would touch 92 mph. He didn't sign, though, since he was committed to the University of Tennessee, where he intended to fulfill his college commitment and be given the chance to play both ways for the Volunteers.

Since the college baseball season was canceled after a few games in 2020 due to COVID, Gilbert really got his first full look of action in 2021. 

At that point, the Volunteers were so deep in their pitching staff and really needed his bat in the lineup, so he began to transition away from the mound, only appearing in seven games in 2021. He did not take the SEC by storm offensively in 2021, posting a solid .778 OPS in 68 games while playing primarily center field.

The breakout really happened in 2022, when he was considered the heart and soul of the No. 1 ranked team in the country. He was done pitching and for the first time focusing solely on hitting. He slashed .362/.455/.673 (1.128 OPS) and routinely came through in big moments for the Volunteers. At this point he had caught the eyes of scouts in a big way and was considered a first-round lock heading into the 2022 MLB Draft.

The Mets spent plenty of time scouting the loaded Tennessee roster, ending up with right-hander Blade Tidwell with their second-round pick. They liked Gilbert quite a bit as a first-round talent, but he fell behind the likes of Kevin Parada and Jett Williams, whom they selected at No. 11 and No. 14, respectively. Gilbert went on to get picked No. 28 overall by the Astros.

When the 2023 season went as it did and the Mets had to consider moving Verlander, the most aggressive team in pursuit of him was the team the Mets signed him away from -- the Astros. Part of the process was to go back to the scouting department headed by Tommy Tanous, Marc Tramuta and Drew Toussaint to get their evaluations on Gilbert (as well as 2022 11^th-round pick Ryan Clifford, who was also in the Verlander deal). 

The Mets insisted that Gilbert be the headliner of any trade and then they negotiated the rest of the deal from there. The Mets believed that between their grades on Parada, Williams, Gilbert, and Tidwell that they had acquired four prospects with either first round or very early second round grades from the 2022 class.

Scouting Report

Gilbert is listed at 5-foot-9 and 200 pounds. You are often going to hear people say he "plays with his hair on fire," which is a more fun way of saying he is a max effort player. You see it in everything he does.

At the plate he generates the average to a tick above average power he has with swing speed over pure strength. Despite this max effort approach, it hasn’t led to extreme swings and misses (18.3 percent strikeout rate since joining the Mets organization) as he has plus barrel control. He also has above average pitch recognition skills, as evidenced by his 12.3 percent walk rate at the Double-A level between his time with Houston and the Mets.

If you removed a stretch in June where Gilbert was playing through some forearm/elbow discomfort where he posted a .561 OPS, he has posted a .976 OPS the rest of the season. Ever since joining the Mets organization, he has hit the ground running. As of this writing he has played 32 games with Double-A Binghamton, and he has at least one hit in 25 of those games. He is slashing .336/.431/.575 (1.006 OPS) with seven doubles, six home runs and 20 RBI.

In the field, Gilbert can play all three outfield spots and is a true leader out there with an incredibly high baseball IQ. People in Binghamton told me within days of joining the team that he was patrolling center field and helping position the corner outfielders. He has enough speed to handle center field and enough arm strength to handle left or right.

Stolen bases will not be a big part of his game, but he has above average speed that he uses to stretch singles into doubles, and should be able to be a double-digit stolen base threat at the next level.

Future

Gilbert comes in at No. 3 in the Mets system in my Top 20 prospect rankings, behind just Luisangel Acuña and Jett Williams. He looks every bit of an above average everyday outfielder who plays the game with passion, and is the type of player that if he performs will garner a ton of fans in New York City.

He is the vintage "get your jersey dirty every day" type of player. I look at him as someone who will hit for some average, get on base at an above average clip, and project to be a 15-to-20 home run bat with plenty of doubles mixed in.

What position he plays defensively I think will be dictated by how the roster looks when he makes his big league debut, and that is a multi-layered discussion. It is a trickle effect regarding Brandon Nimmo as he continues to age, what comes of the Jeff McNeil and Ronny Mauricio duo, and certainly if Brett Baty can hold down third base.

This does not even include Starling Marte, who is under contract for two more years. However, I firmly believe that you can put Gilbert in any of the three outfield spots and he will fit in just fine. I do think long-term that the Mets would like to have their center fielder be someone from the farm system; and as Nimmo ages, shift him over to left field -- which he has played some of this year.

Ultimately, if Gilbert can continue growing as an overall offensive player as well as finding a firm defensive home, there is All-Star potential with Gilbert. If he can fulfill that type of upside, getting him and Clifford for 40-year-old Verlander could go a long way toward making up for how poorly the 2023 season went for this team. I expect Gilbert to begin the 2024 season with Triple-A Syracuse, which makes him simply one call away from making his big league debut.