Vaughn Gone?

A few years back, in the same draft where Omar Minaya took Matt Harvey, the Mets picked up a kid I got excited about at the time. Whether it was the fact he was coached under San Diego State's Tony Gwynn, or the fact his dad was a rather successful power hitter in the Major Leagues for quite some time, I looked forward to the day Cory Vaughn vaulted himself to the top of the Majors as a New York Met.

He had a solid first season in Brooklyn, where he was coached by Wally Backman in 2010. I very much paid attention to that season, going to a few games and watching the kid hit .307 with 14 HR, 56 RBI, a .396 OBP and a .556 SLG in 313 PAs in the pitcher-friendly league. Yeah, he struck out 63 times as well, but that came with the power-hitting territory, right?

Well, he has not faired well since then, hitting mostly in the .240s, his power run-producing abilities not as prolific and having some injury issues along the way. He split time in 2013 between St. Lucie A+ and Binhamton AA, hitting .267 with 10 HR and 50 RBI in 295 PA. Not terrible but not that exciting for a kid drafted out of college 3 years ago.

Yesterday, the Mets protected Stephen Matz, Erik Goeddel, Jeff Walters and Jacob DeGrom from being drafted in the Rule 5. They did not protect Cory Vaughn.

Now, the rule in the Rule 5 is that the player drafted has to spend the entirety of 2014 on the Major League roster by the team who drafted him, otherwise they have to offer the draftee back to his original ball club. The likelihood that Cory Vaughn will somehow get it together if he gets drafted at the upcoming winter meetings is unlikely, but I can totally see a team taking a flyer and trying the kid out, seeing how he does in Spring Training at least before offering him back us if they cut him.

With the Mets lack of depth of impact-position players who are close, especially the outfield, I wanted Cory Vaughn to finally get it together and propel himself to the top of the pack.

Well, that didn't happen. And the Mets felt that he either wasn't appealing enough to other teams to leave on the 40-man or they just didn't care.

We will soon see what happens.

Here's the Random Nothing of the Day.

LET'S. GO. METS.

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