The Mets may be reaching the point where the safest move is the one that looks inward.
For years, the organization has chased the splashiest names on the market, and the payoff hasn’t matched the spending. Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco are the latest examples of additions that didn’t deliver the value expected. Now the front office appears to be tightening its grip on payroll, which makes the internal options matter a lot more than they have before.
That’s where Kevin Parada comes in.
The former first-round pick is suddenly forcing his way back into the conversation at exactly the right time, with the Rule 5 draft looming as a real factor. Parada, taken 11th overall in 2022 out of Georgia Tech, began 2023 as the Mets’ No. 3 prospect before sliding out of the Top 30 by 2025. His progress had stalled, and after five minor league seasons, it looked like his development might have flattened out for good.
Instead, he’s started to wake up.
A rough start at the plate gave way to a promotion to Triple-A, and that move seems to have unlocked something. In 84 plate appearances there, Parada posted a 108 wRC+ and reached base at a .373 clip.
When he went back to Double-A Binghamton at the start of July, the early results were quiet again. But since the start of August, he’s been raking to the tune of a 200 wRC+ with a .750 SLG.
The power has shown up in bunches, too. On August 21, 2026, Binghamton posted, “Parada is on a tear!”
after he launched a two-run homer in the ninth inning. It was his fourth home run in his last nine games.
The underlying changes look just as important as the numbers. Parada’s improved confidence appears to be sharpening his swing decisions, and that’s led to much better contact. His Weighted On-Base Average in Double-A has jumped from 2.13 in July to .482 in August.
The Mets do have catcher depth right now, but Francisco Alvarez’s defensive issues could create enough of a need for Parada to matter on the 40-man roster. If this run keeps going, he may not stay out of that conversation for long. And if the Mets don’t move quickly enough, they could end up seeing him across the field instead of in their own dugout.
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For a player still trying to reestablish himself, the tone of the comments mattered almost as much as the words themselves. Vientos has seen his offense fall off, and his defensive limitations have only added to the skepticism around him, so any public insistence on what comes next is going to invite a hard second look. For now, the bigger question is whether his confidence reads as belief or impatience to an audience that has not exactly been waiting to be persuaded. [Read more 🡒]