The Mets are expected to sign first-round pick Kumar Rocker for a $6MM signing bonus, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The tenth overall pick, with which Rocker was selected, comes with a slot value of $4.7399MM. The deal is pending a physical.
New York’s overall bonus pool is $9.0263MM, meaning Rocker will unsurprisingly receive the bulk of the allotment. Teams are allowed to exceed their bonus pool by five percent before forfeiting future draft choices, leaving the Mets with about $3.478MM to spread around for their picks between the second and tenth round. Aside from second-rounder Calvin Ziegler, the Mets went with college draftees on Day Two, which will allow them to cut under-slot deals elsewhere to accommodate Rocker’s bonus.
Rocker’s reported $6MM bonus lands between the slot values of the fifth and sixth overall selections. It’s not especially surprising he commanded an over-slot bonus given his high profile. Rocker entered the 2021 amateur season among the candidates to wind up as the first overall pick. The Vanderbilt righty’s stuff waxed and waned a little bit throughout the season, taking him out of the 1.1 mix, but he nonetheless dominated opposing hitters. Rocker worked to a 2.73 ERA for the national runners-up, finishing second among Division I hurlers (behind teammate Jack Leiter) with 173 strikeouts over 117 2/3 innings.
That performance kept Rocker among the class’ top prospects. Each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and Keith Law of the Athletic placed him among the six most talented players in this year’s group, with each outlet slotting him behind only Leiter among college arms. The inconsistency of his stuff this spring presented a bit of concern for evaluators, but Rocker’s plus fastball-slider combination when he’s at his best gives him one of the higher ceilings in the class.
What are the chances that we see him being the 1st player of this draft making it to the bigs?
I’d definitely put him near the top, but don’t sleep on Kopps, 24 years old and has already shown he has the ability.
Not high. One of the reasons he fell a bit is because of inconsistency. If he can’t address that, he’s a backend starter. The Mets will want to work with him to unlock hopefully the higher end of his abilities. There’s also always a reliever or two who will move quickly, such as a Garrett Crochet type did last year.
MLB network guys last night picked the kid the Cubs picked and used Crochet as the comp.
Rooting for him. He needs to develop one more pitch.
I’ll bet on RP will be the fist guy up. I’ll bet on Bachman.
I’ll bet on Kevin’s Kopps, 3rd round pick from Padres.
The guy is already already 24 years old and worked exclusively as a long guy in the bullpen
Unless he’s coming up to relieve I highly doubt he moves that fast to Start in the majors
Some college reliever will go quicker
For 6M, he better not profile as a reliever
Who are the “relatives” in this draft. I thought I read somewhere that Kumar is related to John Rocker.
Same dads
This feels like that Halle Berry movie – Monster Balls.
When you see his picture then you’ll know that’s impossible. For multiple reasons.
I doubt that there is a single John Rocker in his lineage, but if there is, 100% not the one that played baseball.
Well I think it’s obvious that John Rocker never went to Vanderbilt.
Wasn’t john Rocker like, severely hated in new york over comments he made about people that live there?
Yes…..
Yes and also as I recall made some homophobic comments.
Don’t forget some off beat sexist and racially insensitive comments such as saying Asian women don’t know how to drive
And your point
This Kid isn’t Rockers …
I just saw that Kumar’s dad is the Eagles new D-line coach
It would be glorious if Kumar Rocker was related John Rocker.
Wouldn’t be hard to outperform John Rocker’s fastball curveball combo, especially since I recall rocker consistently sitting in the low 90s as a closer. But John Rocker was an 80 grade d.bag so there’s that.
yeah they look pretty similar
I believe John Rocker’s fastball was 96-98 mph in his prime.
I’m too lazy to do it, but it’d be interesting to see how many #10 picks actually do go on to outperform someone like John Rocker (3.8fWAR). I think Fangraphs did an article where they looked at war by draft position a few years back, but I can’t find it.
We overslotted John Rocker as an 85 grade D-bag. Perhaps we have been too harsh in our assessment. Always a pleasure to compare scouting notes with ya, Wark!
That’s is hilarious. Do me 2 favors. Read John rockers interview about ppl that ride new York’s subway, then look up Kumar. U’ll figure it out pretty quick
Having a young man of color with the same last name as known racist pitcher of the past come up and outperform him immediately would be great.
If he was related to him in someway, even better. If there is any opportunity to dunk in racists, go for it.
I’ll assume you meant dunk on….but now I have an image of John Rocker sitting on one of those dunk tank things you see at carnivals.
It’s easy to find on baseball reference. Just pull up a drafted player. Hit the round they were drafted and use the drop down boxes to select all number 10 picks.
@1984. Nope, I never mix up my prepositions. Racists get dunked IN, it’s painful and makes them walk strange for a week.
metzfan except that John is a white racist and Kumar and family are blackz they are twins. Sheesh
If the Orioles were going to gamble on a smalltime program player, they should have been willing to gamble on a green pitcher like Rocker
SMH
So so glad they did not.
At some point we need to inject some more high upside pitching into the system. DL Hall and G Rod aren’t enough. We chose to pass on Rocker. Much like the Astros did. They bought the bulk of their ML starting pitching by dishing out prospects. That’s probably Elias’ plan too once the team is competitive. We can’t play all these outfielders we have in the system. That’s going to have to be a trade at some point in time.
We’ve seen what the “other” pitchers in our system offer. Hopefully we find another John Means in the rough somewhere…..
explains why the Angels took a pass
metzfan What does?
Angels took a pass because rockers velocity dipped this year angels took Beckman his velocity increased Couple of tix hire from previous years 96 98 mph His fastball tails and sinks the angels like his ground out percentage rate
Woo!
Even if he doesn’t play organized action til 2022, he should be in Flushing in 2023.
Why does he need over slot ? Is he that selfish ? Go ahead and compromise the other picks. Geez
oof
Did he say he needed to? Maybe he just wanted more money and negotiated it. Would he really turn down 5 million now and go back to college? Mets weren’t willing to take that chance.
Maybe the Mets were worried he would pull a Mark Appel and go back for his senior year.
I’d be happy with 10th slot money $4 million plus Kind of throws a monkey wrench with the other teams and players drafted above him Who was his agent Scott Boris?
It doesn’t compromise other picks. The Mets have done this before, and so have other teams. You take a guy that falls, give him over slot value, then your other picks you take other college guys who you can snag at deal price. Two years ago mets took a high school pitcher in the second round who was a top 10 talent and made up the difference by drafting college seniors who have no leverage.
If you get a 1/1 talent at #10 then of course you go over slot. You’re worried about 9th and 10th round picks that are 80-90% less likely to succeed? Why? He is the difference making talent, not them.
Also, there’s nothing selfish about getting paid what your worth. You really need to review how you see the world. If you bust your @ss and separate yourself from your peers then you deserve to be paid every penny of what you’re worth. Assuming that he is selfish for doing so is ludicrous.
Well Rocker was never 1-1 talent. He has velo issues and if batters don’t chase his slider he gets hit
Going into the season he was a potential 1-1 talent. The inconsistency made him drop. If those issues can get straightened out the Mets could have quite a steal
arguably he is
Yes he is most definitely a 1:1 talent
It’s definitely not just 9th/10th round talent that you need to sacrifice in order to go $1.26m over slot on this pick. I find it interesting that they’re willing to go over for him. Wonder if that’s part of the reason he fell to them, other teams were not willing to? Who knows. He saw his stock fall this year, I think I would have probably challenged him; see if he was really willing to go back to school, but i’ll assume the Mets front office is more knowledgeable than me on this topic.
If he becomes more consistent, that doesn’t make this a steal. It means he’s become a better pitcher and that their gamble paid off.
Surprised me too. As a college junior his leverage is supposed to be weak…..
A college junior still has the option of returning to school. Not the best leverage but most college juniors sign for decent money the first few rounds.
College seniors are screwed. It is take it or go get a real job.
Exactly, teams can leverage the this is your last year card.
If a player is drafted by a team but doesn’t sign, they have to give their OK to be drafted by them again. it actually happened with Rocker. He was drafted by the Rockies in 2018 but went to college. He didn’t give the Ok for them to pick him again(which explains why they passed on him). There could have been a slight fear of that
I’ve never heard of this rule anywhere. I’m not going to say you’re wrong (because I don’t know for certain) but I do know that a few mocks had Colorado picking Rocker at #8. If what you said is correct, then I’m sure the people making the mock draft would know that…
Then all drafted collegians with the exception of a few draft-eligible sophomores have weak leverage.
Yeah, and then high schoolers have no leverage either because if they don’t sign then they only get one more chance to get drafted before their senior year. Draft-eligible sophomores don’t have any leverage because if they were better prospects, they would have just signed out of high school. If I got drafted, I’d just retire because I wouldn’t have any leverage in negotiations.
Unless they go to a junior college
boras
I’m not complaining, I’m happy we got him. If you were a fan of the Mets under the Wilpon era then you’d understand.
Mets drafted pretty well during Wilson ownership. They certainly drafted better than the Yankees overall
The Mets were better positioned due to poor play. The Yankees didn’t have that problem. They did better than us internationally though.
“The Mets were better positioned due to poor play”
But that doesn’t change the fact they drafted well and that drafting plays a big part in where they are now. Plus if Rocker is a sensational talent, will you take credit away from the front office because the Wilpon’s helped them lose their way into that pick?
You’re really comparing draft success for a franchise that consistently has picked top 5-10 for the majority of the last decade vs a team that consistently picked 21-30
And then bragging about it? Wow
Why not? This isn’t the NBA. The advantage draft position gives you in baseball is minimal. Especially once you get out of the top 2 or 3. Fans put way too much weight on draft position. How many times do teams go low with their first pick to save money to spread out in later rounds? Draft position in baseball has minimal effect.
You couldn’t be more incorrect
First rounders have a 66% chance to reach the majors. 2nd rounders drop to a 49% chance, and rounds 3-5 is only 32%.
Each round shows significant drop off in likelihood to reach majors. You really don’t think that trend holds for individual rounds? Why would it not? You don’t think the 1-1 guy has a better chance to hit the majors than the 1-30 pick? The farther from 1-1 someone is selected, the lower their chances they reach the majors.
So to answer your question, it’s a dumb idea to punt your first rounder to pay more for a second rounder..math
https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/1219356-examining-the-percentage-of-mlb-draft-picks-that-reach-the-major-leagues.amp.html
You are talking rounds, I’m talking position within round. Two totally different things. … plenty of teams draft a lesser player in the first round in order to draft more efficiently in the other rounds. If you think that’s dumb you’re arguing with the league, not me.
This guy is a LONG way from Citi Field. Then Tommy John. Not counting on him until 2028.
You must be fun at parties you weren’t invited to.
Gotta be better than the Royals who said “ hey let’s take a fringe late first round early second round at 7.”
Well at least they made up for it with selecting 1st round talent in rounds 2 and 3. Oh nevermind.
Scott Boras. Dude is great for his clients.
Thing with drafting a Boras client is you have about a .0000001% chance of signing him to an extension if he plays up to expectations.
He’s a Boras client? Well that explains a few things.
Boras is great for SOME of his clients. Assuming there’s no way they’d get the same money without him.
Not good for baseball teams to acquire many Boras clients. (Also says a lot about a player’s priorities when Boras is his agent.)
I don’t want to say it’s good for baseball or not, but when you sign a Boras client, contract talk and negotiating in the press follows. No one wants to hear it.
I know Boras is for his “clients” and sells them high. But Boras is one of the major cancers to the game. I believe MLB need to adapt to salary cap. First 3 years salary cap should be 320 million top end and 90 mill low end. 2025 salary cap is locked at 280 mill top end and 120 million low end. This would make teams like Pirates, Rays, Royals, and some others, to invest in the the team and/or extending contracts to players. This lowering teams from overspending on players while exceeding the luxury tax.
If they can cap the draft, they should cap the league. Unless they lift (which I highly doubt) the cap on draft picks aka “draft slot money”, then leave the salary cap out of baseball. But they have a “cap” on the draft and international signings. So, let’s make it a complete “salary cap” era in baseball. Mandfred got booed hard at the draft. Worse than Selig ever did. Speak volumes of the current state of baseball
No cap, but certainly a floor.
bingo. dont need to have one to have the other.
I get what you’re saying but baseball also needs a floor. Right now the Pirates spend far less on payroll than they receive in revenue sharing. Cap could be whatever and Nutting won’t compete. Why would he when he can take millions of other owners dollars and put them in his bank account?
From BB-Ref:
“n Major League Baseball, 48% of local revenues are subject to revenue sharing and are distributed equally among all 30 teams, with each team receiving 3.3% of the total sum generated. As a result, in 2018, each team received $118 million from this pot.”
Pirates had a $95 million payroll that year. Rays $85 million. A’s $82 million. That’s just straight pocketing other teams money.
@ HalosHeavenJJ
A big reason that small market teams such as the Rays, Brewers and Indians can compete is because they put a lot of money into technology and skilled people to find undervalued and young players. By forcing them to spend most of their revenues on payroll they would have no chance to be anything but cellar dwellers.
There would be no reason at all for their fans to follow and support those teams.
MLB is a business. It is not a rotisserie baseball league.
Well said, Samuel.
And because they get Competitive Balance picks every year.
Look at the list of previous free agent classes…. exactly who should the Pirates have overpaid for? Salary floor nice concept in theory but not exactly feasible once you think about it
Why is he a cancer? It’s basic supply and demand. And usually Boras has the best supplies. No one is forcing teams to do business with him. He exists because organizations value his clients. You don’t have to like him (and neither do I) but he’s not part of the problems of today’s game. Blame the system which owners and players have created.
yeah, he brought cole to the yankees to extract the most dollars.
So what you’re saying is that teams in Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, Pittsburg, Miami and Oakland all have the same floor and ceiling as teams from NYC, LA, DC, Boston and Philadelphia do.
Seems fair……as long as ALL revenues are put in one bucket and sent back equally to all 30 teams.
That’s BS
You just won’t get a ridiculous under market extension. Pay your player and a Boras guy will extend
So you’re mad Boras is a great agent for his players. And you think this is something to hate the guy for? Shows your baseball IQ…
As deep as this draft was. I wouldn’t go over slot for anyone. If I had a top 5, for sure top 3 pick, I wouldn’t pay even slot value for anyone.
I believe Tracy Rocker is his father. Played college football at Auburn I believe.
You are correct
wonder if this means I can wear my John Rocker jersey at citifield without too many people noticing
Just don’t take the subway.
Bring an umbrella
If you promise to live stream it, I bet we’d kick in enough to get you tickets ha ha.
I never would have guessed John Rocker would have hooked up with a West Indian woman given everything he said about minorities. People change i guess and can’t wait to see John at Citi Field in a couple years cheering on Kumar.
dang it
This seems pretty much like a grandstanding play for the new Owner.
From a pure baseball perspective it makes very little sense.
But then again, dealing w Scott Boras and his clients seldom does.
From a pure baseball perspective, if theres one agent you cannot avoid and build your best possible team, it’s Scott Boras
He’s the best agent in the game with the best clientele and you idiots are too stupid to understand why he’s good
Ok, so anyone who doesn’t think Boras is a genius is an “idiot.” Give me a break. I you can’t explain exactly WHY Boras is supposedly so great (when all he does is take a portion of an inevitable payday), calling people names for disagreeing doesn’t help your point, if there is one.
If you think Boras is a bad agent or bad for baseball, yes you’re an idiot
What makes Boras so great? His clientele, his sales tactics, his success.
Boras year over year out earns the free agent market, meaning ALL other agencies combined. This very website yearly does a “total market earned” vs “Amount earned by Boras” post.
Go ahead. Tell me what’s so bad about Boras?? Other than he’s a better negotiator than your favorites team’s GM or owner?
How is it grandstanding? The guy was by all accounts a top 5/6 talent in the draft. He fell to 10 but he and boras still feel he should have gone higher. If you want to sign him days after the draft and have the opportunity to have your development people begin working with him right away, then you will need to pay him as if he was the # 5/6 draft pick. If they were prepared for a drawn out negotiation then they could probably get him closer to slot value but would lose time and opportunity for development.
it makes perfect sense. they got a top 3-5 talent at #10, and made up the difference financially. you go hard on talent you really believe in in the draft. few sure things, even less so past the top of the draft.
There’s so many pre-draft discussions that these teams have a very good idea what the price is going to be. That could’ve been why a few teams made the decision to pass. Mets knew. Thought he was worth the cash and made the call.
The Orioles picked a guy at 5 they knew was going to take a 7 figure discount on the slot. If you look at a team like the White Sox—they almost always choose to take guys who they want early. Not concerned about slot value and take under slot guys later.
The Red Sox did something similar, drafting Mayer @ #4 and then Jud Fabian in Round #2. Then they went with a lot of no-name draftees in rounds 3-10. (One decent pitcher in the mix there) but they’ll spend most of their money in rounds 1 & 2. Quality over quantity I guess.
Is there a Harold in the Mets’ low farm system?
Harold Porch. Then you’d have Porch Rocker. Oh, you probably meant the first names.
After drafting him, the Mets realized that they were….
Between a ROCKER and a Hard Place !!
Heard Harold Reynolds asked Kumar to do an interview at the White Castle near Citi Field
Maybe the new team doctor is Doogie Houser?!
Odd. Not like he’d turn down slot and go back to college and risk injury.
Heard there’s a slight chance he pitches in the bigs this season. That would be pretty impressive if he could accomplish that
Are you referring to the voices in your head?
some analyst said that – it won’t happen. but next year, perhaps, if he gets his stuff back to tip top shape.
Knowing the Mets, they will trade him for an aging out of prime player lol
Another arm problem waiting and paying 9m they will rush him.Mutts.Keep up the good work.Hopefully you did a background and there are no harassing or touching incidents you
just swept under the carpet.
Ooooh…K
You must be reading a different story, he is not getting 9 mil.
No big deal! This is nothing, most had him going 6th, and he went 10th, Whoopty doo! Still top 10, now if he dropped towards the end of the 1st, then this might be a story. On top of if, who cares about a little extra in slot money, get your top 5 signed and all is good. It such a crap shoot after the first couple rounds. In fact, after the top 15 over all, the success rate drops off huge on being a impact player in the bigs.
Cohen just make $6 million while I was typing this. If Rocker is a 2-3 then it was a great deal.