The Mets have gotten some real production from recent first-rounders Carson Benge and Mitch Voit, but the two names sitting just before them in the draft order have had a rougher ride. Colin Houck and Kevin Parada are both in the middle of brutal Julys, and neither has done much to help his stock this season.
Houck, the 2023 first-round pick, has become an easy player to overlook. That draft came in a year when the Mets’ future conversation shifted hard toward the prospects they landed at the trade deadline, and Houck never really became the kind of name fans latched onto.
His July line sits at .139/.262/.306, and the bigger problem is that the month has only deepened a season that has already gone sideways. He’s hitting .201/.270/.332 overall, and even with more time at third base than anywhere else, he isn’t looking like a real answer at the hot corner.
Three years after being the club’s top draft pick, he’s already vanished from every Mets top-prospect list worth checking.
Parada’s case is different, but the numbers are just as ugly. The former 11th overall pick in 2022, taken after the Mets failed to sign Kumar Rocker a year earlier, was the more recognizable prospect when he entered the system.
July has brought a .190/.300/.238 line, and it also marked his return to Double-A, where the bat still hasn’t shown much life. For the season, he’s at .186/.299/.229.
The strange part is what happened in Triple-A: in 84 plate appearances for Syracuse, Parada hit .301/.373/.425.
That split only adds to the uncertainty around him. His defense has not drawn strong reviews, and that matters in an organization that seems to value catching more for what happens behind the plate than for any offensive flash. Parada is already a fallen Mets prospect in every practical sense, and with his 25th birthday coming on August 3, the clock keeps ticking on whether the club eventually decides to move on.
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Now there is at least a chance to take a different swing and make the earlier mistake sting a little less. A proposed deal with Milwaukee would send the Mets after a veteran outfielder while asking them to part with two prospects who have real traction of their own, including one whose Dominican Summer League numbers have drawn attention and another who has turned into a dynamic speed-and-contact presence. If New York is looking for a cleaner return on this kind of move, this is the sort of trade that could help balance the ledger. [Read more 🡒]
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He was perfect at the plate, driving in runs and coming through again when the game stretched into extra innings, then delivered the decisive blow with a leadoff homer in the 10th. At third base, though, the same night unraveled in a way that still feels hard to process, with three errors attached to an outing that somehow ended as a win and left Mets fans with a box score they still cant quite explain. [Read more 🡒]
A.J. Minter Sends Emotional Message Mets Fans Wont Want To Ignore
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Minter also addressed the reality that his name could surface in trade talk before the deadline, which only adds another layer to a season already defined by uncertainty. Rather than shy away from it, he said he wants to keep pitching well so the Mets can get something useful back if a move does come, a pragmatic mindset from a player who knows his own future may be tied to how he finishes the stretch. [Read more 🡒]