The Mets Have Found Their Next STAR...

The Mets have found their next star. Nearly 11 months removed from last year's MLB draft, the Amazons' highest selection entered his first professional hot streak with high A Brooklyn. Experts already look forward to the future, claiming Mitch Voight will replace Marcus Simeon. Fans patiently await the former Wolverines' big league debut, while New York continues thriving with young stars, so we'll dive into the number 38 overall selection from last year's draft. Entire story only here on Mets Digest. I'm your host today, Mike Duda, ready to do so, but before we dive in, I want to thank each and every single one of the over 7 and a quarter thousand subscribers that we have here on the channel. Thank you so much for hitting that free subscribe button, and if you're part of the 67% of viewers who has not yet done so, please consider we're on the road to 8,000 subscribers, and we have videos coming out each and every single day between myself and Josh Burns, sometimes two, three, and even four videos in a given day. So thank you so much in advance, and with that, let's kick things off with Voight's collegiate tenure in Big Ten baseball at the University of Michigan, and as you can tell, first and foremost, he was a pitcher and a hitter. However, he ended up giving up pitching. We'll dive into that a little bit later, and the stats show it. In 2024, with injury, keep in mind, he didn't have a very good ERA, a 5.49 ERA, not so hot in his freshman year, 3.25. It's not terrible. It's not great. It's kind of middle of the road, in my opinion, when you're talking about a draft eligible prospect guy who's good enough to go to the big leagues when it comes to collegiate baseball, but the hitting has always been there, highlighted by when he solely gave up pitching and said, I am going to be a full-time second baseman slash middle infielder moving forward, and that is when he lit up offensively. A near .350 batting average, a slug that was nearing .700, and an OBP close to .500 for an OPS well above 1.100, 14 homers, 60 RBIs, what an offensive season. He was a two-time All-American, very solid on the field as well with 445 career putouts, 291 assists, just 15 errors, and a .980 fielding percentage, and also, he played alongside Jack Council. Now, if that last name sounds familiar, it probably is because yes, he is indeed the son of manager and former player himself, Craig Council. In fact, all three of them went to the same high school. Not only did Jack and Mitch Voigt play together at Michigan, they played together in high school at Whitefish Bay, which is also where Craig Council attended. So overall, it seems great. He's got the legacy background, he's got some teammates, and guys who have big names themselves who have spoken highly of him. He's obviously producing well on the field in Big Ten baseball, which is a very competitive conference, but then this happens. And this was in his junior year, his most recent season, and last in collegiate baseball. I'll let you make the assumptions yourself. If you don't know what's happening here, just look up Mitch Voigt controversy. I don't want to say it because this is a PG channel, so you'll understand when you look that up, or you might just understand now by looking at it. So this happened. He was celebrating a triple that he had against the University of Southern California. But before we dive in a little bit more on this controversy, we're going to return to it in a second because the Mets, they didn't care. They took him anyway. According to Anthony Tacomo on draft night last year, the Mets have made their first pick in this year's draft. At number 38 overall, they selected Mitch Voigt, an infielder who posted a 1.140 OPS this season in 2025 for the University of Michigan. Formerly a two-way player, Voigt converted full-time to second base this past season. So they took him. They said, that is fine. And probably because he is a player that upper Midwest area scout, Chad Langley, had been tracking for basically the entirety of the season closely since the fall of 2025, according to Tacoma, who again is an insider with the Mets and the MLB. Voigt becomes the highest Michigan pick since David Parrish went to the Yankees number 28 overall at the turn of the century in 2000. But this leaves some questions. Was it an overreach? Well, if you see that number in the top right-hand corner of your screen saying 63, that is where he was originally said. They said he is the 63rd best prospect coming out of the draft slash draft eligible. And obviously the Mets took him 38th, which is a lot higher than where he was projected. Now, why did the Mets have the 38th overall pick as technically their first rounder? Well, that's because they went too far over the luxury tax. They passed the threshold at $40 million, therefore dropping 10 spots. Remember, they had a great year in 2024, reached the NLCS, but they had to drop 10 spots additionally because of that luxury tax threshold that they went over. So Voigt became the 38th overall pick, and some people, including experts, were saying that this was an overreach. So with that, I think now is a good time to return to the controversy where we're going to turn it to Kirk Gross, who is the Mets vice president of amateur scouting. He said right after the draft, yes, it was addressed. We spoke to him earlier in the spring to comment about it. And basically he's a young guy. It's a heat of passion. It's a big game. He made a big play for his team, and he made a mistake. And he's made an apology for it and owned up to it and handled it with class. We did a ton of research after the fact with multiple sources about his makeup. We know this isn't an issue, and we feel comfortable with Mitch moving forward. So the Mets are fine. They said, it's okay. We're going to put it behind us. And this is the apology that he was referencing Voigt the day after the game said this on X. I would like to apologize for my actions on third base yesterday. I made an immature decision in the heat of the moment. The gesture I made does not reflect my character, the household I was raised in, or the block that I represent in any kind of way. I take full responsibility for what I did. And I am truly sorry to all those who I have negatively impacted by doing this. So he apologized, everyone moved on. And with that, let's take a look at where he is now. As you can tell, that top right hand number says six. That is where he currently is, according to MLB.com in the Mets system. He is not a top 100 prospect in all of major league baseball, but he is the sixth best in the Mets system, age 21, standing at six foot, 201 pounds, a double righty with an estimated time of coming to the pros in 2028, just a year and a half from now. And here are the scouting grades, 55 on hit 50 on power, 60 runs, 60 arm 50 field for an overall 50 prospect on the 20 to 80 draft scale, 20 being the absolute worst and 80 being the absolute best, a true generational prospect. So it was about middle of the road, which I expect from a guy who technically is a first round pick, but in all of reality is a second rounder because there's only 30 MLB teams. He was taken 38 and the competitive balance round only has six picks. So in theory, he's really just a second round pick. Yeah. I mean, you could say he's a first rounder, but in theory I say he's a second round pick, but overall I like where this is going. So what does MLB.com have to say about him? Well, they said the Mets have had success with former two way players recently having drafted and developed Nolan McLean and Carson Bench, arguably two of the better, if not two of the best players on the entire New York Met team and Voight could be their next success story. Voight hit and pitch in his first two seasons at Michigan before internal brace surgery that we mentioned earlier in July, 2024 forced him to focus on being a position player in his draft year. He hit .346, .471, .668 for an OPS well above 1.140 or at 1.140 I should say with 14 homers and 34 strikeouts to 40 walks. He walked more than he struck out in 56 games as a Wolverine junior. And that performance pushed him to New York with the 38th overall pick. He signed for below slot at $1.75 million and gotten in 25 games with single A Port St. Lucie afterwards. So what'd they say about the offensive improvements after he stuck to that one side? You saw it in the collegiate statistics. Well, as can be the case when two way types hone in on their focus on one side, Voight saw improvements nearly across the board in his final collegiate season, particularly when it came to making better swing decisions. Despite relatively down performance in a small sample size, he also showed wicked bat speed in the Florida State League, which is kind of the rookie ball league. And if that holds up in his first full season, he could stand to be an above average hitter when combined with the discipline. Voight projects for an average power right now, though he could occasionally challenge for 20 plus homers in a given season, which is not too bad, especially when you consider that he's got speed. He has plus speed and isn't afraid of using it to his advantage on the base bats. He went 20 for 21 in steal attempts in the FSL between college and the pros. He got the bulk of his work in at second base, but he has sprinkled in some shortstop with Port St. Lucie. You've also seen that now that he's with Brooklyn and impressed evaluators with how well his athleticism could translate to the more premium position, that being shortstop. Voight's plus arm strength from his pitching days will play anywhere on the dirt. Could be third base, could be shortstop. He doesn't have to necessarily make that shorter throw from second because keep in mind, he was a guy who could throw mid 90s as a pitcher. Obviously, he'll be able to get it across the diamond and the Mets plan to keep him rotating to keep his avenues in flushing wide open. It depends on where the Mets are at. If it's 2028, contractually, Bobuchet could be there, Bobuchet might not be there. As we've mentioned, Francisco Lindor could be traded. Who knows? He might not be there. Marcus Simeon's contract is expiring at that time. So where are the Mets going to put him? It doesn't matter. He can play anywhere in the infield. Now, as for Voight himself, how does he describe himself when he was asked about a scouting report on himself? A couple of words, I'm a winner, plainly put. So it's paid off so far. That comment has been true passively. Obviously, in June, only five games, not a big sample size, but a 286 batting average is great and an OPS nearing 900, which is even better when you include the two games prior. How about two homers as well in the last seven games and three in his last 15 for an OPS at 850? You see the rest of the stats on your screen. Very impressive. A lot of steals as well. But overall, the stats don't look great because he's really started to heat up in about his last seven to 10 games. Now, I mainly got this idea from an ex post that said, quote, Future Simeon replacement loading. That's what we mentioned in the intro video. There is a world where Mitch Voight does a one for one replacement for Marcus Simeon. But then again, as we mentioned, it could be Lindor, could be Buchet, could be Beatty, could be really anyone in that infield. He also has impressive athleticism defensively, mainly that was showed at shortstop so far with the Brooklyn Cyclones. He's similar to Corson Benj and AJ Ewing. As we heard earlier, these young guys who have a ton of potential, I really think that in the future you could have McLean as an ace, Soto, Benj, Ewing as the outfield and maybe even Mitch Voight as the king of the infield over at shortstop. So remember in his second career at that as well in the big leagues, technically in spring training, he had a base knock. He also played seven innings at second base in that game overall. So very impressive from Mitch Voight, but I want to know what you think down below. Do you like Mitch Voight? Do you think he's going to be up in about a year and a half? Where do you think? Where do you think that this recent hot streak lies? Is this more of a Kevin Parada situation, which seemingly you guys aren't as high and say, okay, it's only a couple of games. Let's relax. Do we feel the same way about Mitch Voight? Well, let me know your thoughts down below, but unfortunately that's all the time I have for you in today's video. Thank you so much as always for watching and let's go Mets!