Mets' Seth Lugo has wise words for late-round draftees
The Mets' Seth Lugo throws during the ninth inning against the Reds in Cincinnati on July 5. Credit: AP/Aaron Doster
CHICAGO — One thousand and thirty-one players heard their names called during the 2011 MLB Draft before Seth Lugo. The list became so long that Lugo — working a kids camp at Centenary College, for which he played — had given up the professional dream this time around and was mentally preparing to return for his senior year.
But then the Mets picked him in the 34th round (33 rounds after Brandon Nimmo), a stage of the draft so late that it doesn’t even exist anymore. He had a shot.
“I knew I had my foot in the door, and that’s all I ever wanted,” Lugo recalled Saturday. “I knew I could outwork anybody. I wasn’t too concerned about what round or whatever.”
The experiences and wisdom of Lugo, the latest-drafted player on the Mets’ roster, are relevant again this time of year, with the 2022 MLB Draft running Sunday through Tuesday. The Mets will make a pair of first-round choices, Nos. 11 and 14 overall, Sunday night.
Those kids will be highly touted and almost certainly immediately rank among the Mets’ top prospects. This year’s Seth Lugos will not. A player of his perceived ability and potential probably won’t even get drafted this year, with the proceedings capped at 20 rounds.
Lugo’s advice to those drafted later than they want (and those signed as undrafted free agents)?
“There are plenty of people who got disappointed — but you made it,” he said. “Outwork the guys who got drafted before you. That’s what it comes down to. As soon as you get drafted or signed by a team, your opportunity is there. It’s up to you what you do with it. Don’t get down on yourself because someone else is getting more chances. That’s irrelevant. If you want it, you gotta stick it out and go get it.”
That is what Lugo did when he was sent to the Kingsport Mets, a team that doesn’t exist anymore in a minor league that doesn’t exist anymore, and lived in an apartment with five other guys. Collectively, the were “a bunch of no names, really,” Lugo said.
The reality of professional baseball set in when the Mets’ roving instructors would visit Kingsport and give more attention to the players who were drafted earlier and received bigger signing bonuses — the real prospects, if you will.
“Once the coordinators start coming around, you start to figure out who is drafted when, what schools you went to,” Lugo said. “When the coordinators come through and start picking out those guys, the rest of us are sitting around like, ‘Woah, can we get some coaching over here, too?’ You learn real quick who is going to get the help and who has to figure it out on their own.”
Lugo beat the incredibly long odds to not only reach the majors but have an ongoing successful career. Of the 51 players chosen by the Mets that year, only first-rounders Nimmo and Michael Fulmer have a higher WAR, as measured by Baseball Reference.
“I had some friends back home that knew more about the minor leagues and the draft and stuff than I did,” Lugo said. “‘Oh, you’re only the 34th round.’ I got my foot in the door. That’s all I ever wanted. Give me a shot and I’ll take it from here.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
