Just after 3 p.m. ET on Aug. 3, less than three hours before the MLB trade deadline, Sammy Stafura was three hours into a seven-hour bus trip to Georgia with the Pirates' High-A affiliate, the Greensboro Grasshoppers, when he received the call.
That call was from the Pirates informing him that he had been traded to the Mets in the deal that sent Luke Weaver to Pittsburgh.
"I kind of blacked out," Stafura told SNY in an interview that will air in full on the next episode of The Mets Pod. "Wow, I’m really going to the Mets, this is crazy."
This led to a wild travel day for Stafura. He finished the remaining four hours on the bus with his now former teammates, then immediately hopped into an Uber for an hour and a half to ride Hartfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta. He had a three hour wait until a flight back to Greensboro, packed his things and then made the drive to Wilmington, Del. to meet up with his new team, the Brooklyn Cyclones.
The hectic day was all worth it, as Stafura now gets to suit up for the organization that he and his entire family are all diehard fans of. Born in Westchester County, Stafura’s earliest memory of going to Citi Field was at 5-or 6-years-old, with he and his family going to multiple Mets games per year.
As excited as Stafura was to learn he was traded to the Mets, his older brother Steven was perhaps even more excited.
"He was stressing for days," Stafura said. "He had a feeling something was going to go down. He was on Twitter just checking everything. He wasn’t even getting work done." Steven works with their father and younger brother. "When I called him, he was just pumped."
The Mets were excited to land Stafura, who came in as the No. 3 ranked prospect in the Mets system in my post-deadline rankings. From a tools standpoint, Stafura has the loudest tools of anyone in the Mets system. He is a plus athlete with top-end speed that rivals the speed of A.J. Ewing, which was on display when he beat out a routine groundball to shortstop last week.
Stafura and Ewing not only share speed on the diamond, but they also share a relationship off the diamond that dates to high school and the travel ball circuit.
"We played each other a bunch in high school, so we knew each other," Stafura said. "Once we got to pro ball, it was a close world. It felt like we played each other every week, so we’d always grab breakfast together and hang out, just going through this grind together."
Along with the speed, I couldn’t find a scout who had any doubt Stafura could stick at shortstop -- most thought he is plus at the position. He has some experience at second base and his athleticism would theoretically play in center field as well. Stafura is a true up-the-middle athlete.
On the offensive side, Stafura has made some swing changes this year that has led to an uptick in bat speed and power with the exit velocity numbers to line up with above average, bordering on plus raw power. The 21-year-old has 20 home runs in 66 games on the season as of this writing.
He also cited a mentality shift that comes with maturing as a ballplayer, and that mindset is simple: He’s the best.
"It’s truly believing that I am the best player on the field, and I am way better than that pitcher every moment and every pitch," Stafura said, "It’s the approach of locking in your mind, because everyone’s got skill and talent. The one thing that separates a lot of people is the mental side."
Stafura, like every baseball player, is obviously not without flaws. He brings an aggressive approach to everything he does in the game, and that has led to a higher strikeout rate than you’d like to see. He has a 29 percent strikeout rate, and at times does chase breaking stuff away in the name of trying to do damage.
In talking to evaluators, it would probably be a detriment to attempt to drastically change Stafura's approach. The aggressive and high energy playing style is what makes him tick. However, if the strikeout rate can be reined into the 25 percent or better range, that could optimize his profile.
That profile looks the part of a future top 100 prospect. Any time there is a prospect who can combine plus speed and defense with above average, bordering on plus power at a premium position like shortstop -- even with the swing-and-miss questions -- that is an exciting prospect with big potential.
From a 5- or 6-year-old Mets fan to a high school kid sliding into the Mets' DMs on Instagram to try to throw out the first pitch, Stafura embraces the pressure that comes with being a Mets fan in the Mets' system.
If there’s one quote from the Stafura interview on The Mets Pod, which I implore you to check out when it drops, that summarizes the player that the Mets acquired, it's this one:
"I got the energy and I’m ready to eat."
