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Top-10 Stories of 2018: No. 1 Jarred Kelenic's historic season for Wisconsin baseball

December 28, 2018
By Andy Sroka
Staff Writer

With the sixth pick of the 2018 MLB Draft, the New York Mets selected Waukesha’s own Jarred Kelenic, the first high school player off the board and the earliest a prep prospect has ever been taken from Wisconsin in baseball’s annual draft.

The Waukesha West star stole the show at the PBR Super 60 back in February, standing out amongst a sea of Division-I-bound talent and fellow draft hopefuls. The 2018 Super 60 was actually his second one, among the few to compete more than once in the 16-year-old star-studded showcase. There, he provided five tools of evidence as to why he was perceived as a top-of-the-first-round talent. He ran the second fastest 60-yard dash, was 96 mph throwing darts home, and was producing consistently explosive contact from the left-handed batter’s box.

Jarred Kelenic (2/4/18)

As he geared up for June’s draft, it became more clear that Kelenic was seen as one of the class of 2018’s brightest prospects. His lauded work ethic complemented his dynamic set of skills and it resulted in him making Wisconsin baseball history. The Mets called Kelenic’s name with the No. 6 pick of the draft and he rewarded them almost as soon as he picked up a bat again for the first time as a member of the Mets.

The cold-weather questions that typically surround draft picks from northern states like Wisconsin were immediately answered when Kelenic settled into the Gulf Coast League. In his first 51 games of pro ball, he slashed .413/.451/.609 for the GCL Mets – enough for New York’s old front office regime to reward his early returns with a call-up to Kingsport on July 9. Again, Kelenic was up to the challenge. He homered in his first game at the new level and then again two games later. He finished his introductory season with five homers. Coming into the pros, if there was a knock against Kelenic, it was whether or not he was going to produce enough over-the-fence kind of contact. It didn’t take him long to give that critique some pause.

All while his power potential materializes, Kelenic is seamlessly fitting into a center fielder’s profile and swiped 15 bases in 2018, too. He’s truly becoming the five-tool talent evaluators wondered was possible.

The Waukesha product cooled off, understandably, as his roller coaster of a year winded down and the offseason neared. He headed back home to Wisconsin a member of the Mets but will return to the diamond in 2019 as a member of the Seattle Mariners organization.

At the start of the offseason, the Mets cleaned out their front office and announced the hiring of a new general manager, Brodie Van Wagenen, at the end of October. All of a sudden, the Mets appeared to be taking the aggressive steps of becoming contenders as soon as next spring, making prospects like Kelenic available for trade, in an effort to obtain more Major League-ready talent. In the weeks that followed, it almost felt inevitable that Kelenic would be traded. Finally, on Dec. 3, it was announced that Kelenic, as well as Major Leaguers Jay Bruce and Anthony Swarzak, in addition to fellow prospects Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista, would be headed to Seattle in exchange for Robinson Canó and Edwin Díaz.

Kelenic’s early production injects the Mariners’ farm system with some much-needed top-of-the-line talent. It’s looking like they’re hoping to become competitive by the time Kelenic is ready to make his Major League debut, within the next three years or so, putting the Wisconsin-bred prospect at the center of this mega deal.

Regardless, wherever Kelenic calls his baseball home, he represents the best Wisconsin has had to offer on the field, and his historic 2018 is our state’s most important storyline of the year.

TOP STORIES OF 2018