WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 17: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets and the National League and guests attend the 89th MLB All-Star Game, presented by MasterCard red carpet at Nationals Park on July 17, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
When picturing the stars of the current and recent New York Mets rosters, several last names come to mind. deGrom. McCann. Wright. Those names all make sense. But what if I told you that those names could also comprise the future Mets roster 15-20 years from now?
One of my favorite parts of each year’s All-Star break festivities is seeing the players with their kids on the field before and after the game, as well as during the Home Run Derby. MLB players’ kids represent the future of the sport, a world of glorious, untapped possibilities. It’s fun to hear about the birth of Mike Trout’s son, Beckham Aaron Trout, and imagine that this small child could one day surpass his father’s lofty baseball achievements. We’re already seeing Fernando Tatis Jr. quickly out-doing his dad in terms of baseball stardom.
Though a large segment of current Mets players do not have kids, several of them do. Just for fun, here are a few “Mets kids” and where they hypothetically could fall in a future MLB draft. There’s no way to, at four years old, accurately project someone’s potential baseball career, but sometimes the saying “like father, like son” actually does apply.
Mini Mets: Jaxon deGrom
As you might be able to guess, Jaxon deGrom’s famous dad is current Mets ace Jacob deGrom. Jaxon’s full name is Jaxon Anthony deGrom (his dad has the same middle name), and he was born on April 11, 2016. His birth had some scary complications, as Jaxon struggled to breathe during his first few days out of the womb and had to be checked into a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for several days. deGrom took a family emergency leave of absence from the Mets for two weeks to be with his family and look after his son.
“When he would fall asleep, he would stop breathing,” said deGrom in an interview with MLB.com from April 2016. “We wanted him to be looked at and make sure everything was fine. We gave him to the nurses one night, and it happened a couple times, so they decided it was best that he was monitored. . . He’s in there hooked up to those monitors, so you find yourself constantly watching these monitors, and you’re just hoping they don’t go back down.”
Luckily, Jaxon soon recovered and left the hospital. He is now a healthy four, nearly five-year-old. As deGrom’s career has ascended and he has gone to All-Star games, the World Series, and other prominent sporting events, Jaxon and the rest of the deGrom family have accompanied him. To the delight of Mets Twitter, Jaxon has become the star of several amusing photos.
If Jaxon decides to follow in his dad’s footsteps, he would be eligible to be drafted out of high school in approximately 2034 and could be a college draftee by 2038. There is no word yet on whether he inherited his dad’s award-winning right arm, so the jury is still out on his baseball ceiling. Still, I’m looking forward to getting the scouting reports on his tee ball games in the next couple of years.