Kevin Parada has never been on time for a team workout, practice or game with Brooklyn Cyclones.
He’s always been early.
As the Mets have punted on the 2023 — and perhaps the 2024 — seasons, the organization has restocked the farm system at the trade deadline with an influx of talented prospects including infielder Luisangel Acuña and outfielder Drew Gilbert.
But a potential franchise cornerstone has been with the Mets the whole time — he was early to the team’s new timeline, too.
Parada, a 21-year-old catcher who is now the Mets’ No. 5 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, has emerged in the minor leagues with a precocious hit tool, breaking out over the past few months as the type of hitter that could change the complexion of a major-league lineup.
Despite his success, one critical question for Parada remains in the form of another 21-year-old catcher in the Mets organization: Francisco Alvarez.
Since he was drafted 11th overall out of Georgia Tech in 2022, Parada has dealt with questions about the defensive side of his game.
Could a position change or a trade be in his future as Alvarez emerges as a star behind the plate?
“They told me I’m gonna be a catcher, so that’s the goal, to be a big-league catcher, and if things change, they change, you know; in the end, it’s not really up to my decision,” Parada said. “Whatever I gotta do to help the team win and get to that level and hopefully play for a long time.”
The Pasadena native, who’s been on the IL since July 28 with a sprained ankle, has a .796 OPS and 10 home runs on the season with the Coney-Island-based Cyclones, highlighted by an impressive June, when he hit for an .893 OPS and five homers, smacking booming home runs with the backdrop of the “Thunderbolt” roller coaster and a bevy of Coney Island rides.
“He’s a dude,” Brooklyn Cyclones manager Chris Newell told The Post after a recent home game. “I mean, he’s a guy that is gonna be around for a while. And whatever team he’s on, the team is going to win, because he’s a winner.
“And hopefully, it’s in Queens for the Mets. But that remains to be seen — that’s out of my jurisdiction, but he’s an easy guy to root for,” Newell added. “And I can tell you that the other 29 clubs would love to have him on their club. And thankfully, he’s with us right now.”
On any given day throughout the fall of Parada’s sophomore year at Georgia Tech, major-league scouts and executives packed the stands at any team activity they could gain access to at Russ Chandler Stadium, hoping to catch a glimpse of the much-hyped prospect.
“I think that a lot of people don’t realize if you become a top prospect like Parada, the scrutiny that you’re under all the time,” Georgia Tech manager Danny Hall said. “It could be anybody and everybody on the scouting side or assistant GMs or general managers…There’s a lot to be said, just for the mental side, the focus side, being able to handle that pressure of guys coming in all the time to watch you.”
Parada’s prospect stock really started to take off during his record-breaking sophomore season, when he demolished ACC pitching with a 1.161 OPS, setting a single-season school record with 26 home runs in 60 games and winning the Buster Posey Award for the top catcher in college baseball.
“His work ethic is off the charts, and his focus is off the charts,” Hall said. “It was pretty clear from Day 1 he knew where he wanted to go, and we had to kind of map it out for him like, ‘OK, here’s the steps you need to take to get where you want to go.’”
Parada’s all-around game gained a lot of polish when he played on Team USA’s Collegiate National Team roster between his freshman and sophomore seasons, learning from fellow prospects and MLB coaches alike, including Colorado Rockies’ catching guru Jerry Weinstein, who helped Parada work on his receiving and throwing.
But it took a bit of luck for Parada to land in the Mets’ laps last July.
The catcher’s sophomore-year performance had given his draft stock a lot of helium, and he was being projected to go as high as fifth in some mock drafts.
When Parada was available with the No. 11 pick the Mets owned because they had not signed No. 10 pick Kumar Rocker in the year prior due to injury concerns, the team didn’t blink, selecting the California-born catcher in what some considered to be a steal.
“It’s amazing, if the draft happened over again, there’s no doubt in my mind he would get taken much higher,” said Kevin Howard, the Mets’ Director of Player Development. “And that’s a credit to our scouting department with the New York Mets. I mean, that’s the goal when you draft every guy, that you’re getting a great value for your pick. And I think with Kevin, we hit a home run.”
Howard knew about Parada’s question marks, but still felt the team had a chance at serious value with the catcher falling to that spot.
“We knew we were getting a bat with a pretty high floor and an even higher ceiling, and we got a catcher defensively that had some things that he needed to improve but was very open to working on them and open to taking coaching, which was one of the most important things for us,” Howard said.
Though Parada’s bat has excelled across the minor leagues, that’s never been the biggest question regarding his development.
His defensive prowess behind the plate will be the most pivotal part of his ascent to the major leagues. Some scouts doubt his catching abilities will translate to the major-league level.
One MLB scout said Parada was a “solid prospect” who “still has a ways to go with his defense, but the needle is pointing up.”
Another scout said the catcher was “so much better” than he had been early in the season and now projects to be a .275-.285 hitter with 15-20 homers a year — though the defensive issues and the threat of a position change still loom large.
“My concern with him remains the catching — he is a mediocre receiver with a well-below-average arm,” the second scout said. “If the game really is getting more athletic, I’m not sure you can have a guy who struggles to throw like that catching. But his bat is going to play. … He has athleticism, so I think he can come off of catching and find a place. He will be at least an average major leaguer, and if the power ticks up a bit, then more than that.”
As Álvarez rips through the majors, chasing Johnny Bench for the most homers by a 21-year-old catcher — all while quashing talk of his own defensive inadequacies — it’s fair to wonder where exactly Parada will make an impact if he makes it to Queens.
A scouting report published by FanGraphs on Parada compares him to Kyle Schwarber, who was developed as a catcher before moving to a left field and designated hitter role.
Howard said the Mets aren’t yet focused on the idea of how to fit both Alvarez and Parada on the big-league roster.
“Our philosophy is you can never have too many good players at one position,” Howard said.
“And you can cross the bridge of what to do with them when they’re all big league-ready. Right now, Francisco is our catcher, and he’s a great one. Parada still has a lot of development to do. He’s gonna be a great one. What happens with that dynamic down the road, we have the liberty of not having to worry about that until the time comes.”
The Mets have focused specifically on remedying Parada’s receiving and his throwing, as his game-calling and blocking are further along. Howard acknowledged the Mets “gave him a little more than he can process for the time being at the beginning of the season,” when Parada put up a .666 OPS in April, but said his defense had started to improve along with his hitting throughout the season.
“Catching-wise, he will be the first one to admit that his catching has needed some work, and I think everybody knew that coming in, but he’s worked his ass off to get better at that and I think he’s making wonderful strides in that aspect of the game,” Newell said. “He’s a pro’s pro, and he’s only 21 years old. He’s getting better.”
Parada got a taste of what his big-league future could look like when he was invited to the Mets’ major-league spring training camp before the season, an experience he said was an “awesome” step in his evolution as a player.
And with Parada now excelling at the High-A level after posting an .880 OPS across rookie ball and Low-A last year, Double-A Binghamton could be just a matter of weeks away.
“It’s a goal,” Parada said about reaching the next level of the minors this season. “It’s like everything else. I mean, the end goal is to be in the big leagues anyway, so until you’ve reached that stepping stone, there’s different paths.”
For now, fans can only dream about the possibility of adding Parada to a lineup alongside names like Lindor, Nimmo, Alonso, and Álvarez — but it’s clear the catcher is part of a wave of the potential next generation of Mets stars Alongside highly touted prospects like Acuña and Gilbert, as well as fast-rising pitchers Blade Tidwell and Tyler Stuart,
“He’s a difference-maker, and I mean this in a great way: He is very selfish in terms of, ‘I’m going to take care of my business because I have a goal and I have a dream that I need to accomplish and I’m gonna get there and nobody’s gonna get in my way,’ Newell said. “I think that’s a trait that all the great ones have.”
— Additional reporting by Joel Sherman