No. 19
New York also selects Duke left-hander Santucci with No. 46 overall pick in 2nd round.
In the third round of last year’s Draft, the Mets took a chance on a red-haired, two-way player from Oklahoma State named Nolan McLean. They must have been pleased with that pick, because in the first round of this year’s Draft, the Mets took a chance on a red-haired, two-way player from Oklahoma State named Carson Benge.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given such similarities, McLean and Benge became close friends during their two years together at OSU. Even this past season, as Benge wrapped up his college career and McLean embarked on his professional one, the two spoke almost daily. Benge asked all sorts of questions about pitching, hitting and life in the Minor Leagues. McLean offered insights.
But it wasn’t all business: The two regularly logged on to play Rocket League together and “tear some kids up” in their favorite video game.
“Right when I got to campus, we were both gingers. We were both two-ways,” Benge recalled, laughing. “So really, we kind of stuck to each other and it was kind of fun having him around.
All told, Benge and McLean spent about a year apart after the latter was drafted. On Sunday, the Mets took the first step toward reuniting them when they selected Benge with the 19th overall pick in the 2024 Draft, later adding Duke left-hander Jonathan Santucci with their second-round selection.
“He’s been texting my phone nonstop,” Benge said of McLean, who is currently playing for Double-A Binghamton. “He wants to hop on a call with me. He’s pretty hyped up.”
“We’ve been kind of trying to manifest this for a little while now,” McLean added. “We always play video games quite a bit. So just every night, we were like, ‘Man, I hope you become a Met. It would be awesome if we could end up becoming teammates together.
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