CHICAGO — After three straight years of drafting high school players with their top pick, the Mets went back to college on Thursday.
The team selected Oregon State outfielder Michael Conforto with the 10th overall pick in the draft. Conforto hit .345 with seven homers and 56 RBIs in 59 games for the Beavers this year and set a single-season school record with 55 walks.
“It’s a real fit for what we like in a hitter,” said Mets director of amateur scouting Tommy Tanous. “This is a guy who has the ability to lay off pitches and the ability to really hurt pitches.”
Conforto comes from an athletic family. His mother, Tracie Ruiz-Conforto, was a two-time Olympic gold medalist in synchronized swimming and his father, Mike, played linebacker at Penn State.
“I take pride in carrying on that tradition of athletics,” Michael Conforto said. “It’s something that I enjoy and runs through my family.”
It was the fourth straight year the Mets selected a position player with their top pick. Brandon Nimmo (2011), Gavin Cecchini (2012) and Dominic Smith (2013) are the other first-round draft picks of general manager Sandy Alderson’s regime.
“We do think [Conforto] is an advanced hitter and has a chance to move quicker than the high school players we have taken the last three years,” said Mets vice president of scouting and player development Paul DePodesta.