The Mets are looking for this season’s Jose Iglesias! The Mets don’t have a ton of depth up the middle with fielders who can play second base and at shortstop.
In November the Mets brought in Donovan Walton to try to fill that vacancy. Walton was originally drafted by the Mets in 2012 but did not sign with the Mets. He enrolled at Oklahoma and was drafted in 2015 by the Brewers, but still did not sign. In 2016 the Mariners became the winners of the Walton sweepstakes, drafting him in the fifth round.
Walton has had a few cups of coffee with the Mariners and the Giants between 2019 and 2024, totaling 70 games hitting .174/.227/.305 with a 49 OPS+. He’s coming off a successful 2024 minor league campaign where he hit .306/.380/.441 (.821 OPS) over 99 games played. That’s pretty good!
Going into the spring it was difficult to see a path for Walton to make the major league team, outside of a taxi squad. The Mets had Nick Madrigal as the super utility player. Behind him was Brett Baty and Luisangel Acuña. Madrigal’s injury moves everyone up the depth chart, including Donovan Walton.
As of writing Walton is 2-for-11 over four spring training games with a double and one strikeout. If he can hit closer to what he did with Sacramento (Giant’s Triple A team, not the future home of the Athletics), then we’ll probably see him with the major league team at some point this season.
