Kevin Parada #8

Selected in the 1st round (No. 11 overall) of the 2022 MLB Draft by the New York Mets out of Georgia Tech... signed with the Mets on July 30, 2022... received a record-breaking bonus of a little more than $5 million -- no player outside the top-10 picks of any previous MLB Draft in the bonus-pool era had earned that high a bonus, according to MLB.com's Jim Callis... made his Mets debut on Aug. 19, 2022 with the Florida Complex League Mets, going 2-for-3 with a double... Mets promoted him to St. Lucie after three games -- he made his Florida State League debut on Aug. 27 vs Palm Beach... hit his first career professional home run in his final game of the season on Sept. 11, 2022 at Fort Myers... was considered an early-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft but kept his commitment to Georgia Tech... entered the 2023 season ranked by MLB.com as the No. 36 overall prospect in baseball.

Appeared in 111 games over two seasons from 2020-22 at Georgia Tech, where he hit .340 with 35 homers, 130 RBIs, 30 doubles and 120 runs scored in 473 at-bats... was a unanimous First-Team All-American in 2022 while also winning the 2022 Johnny Bench Award and the 2022 Buster Posey Award... was named the 2022 District 4 Player of the Year... was named a 2021 Freshman All-American by D1Baseball, Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game... played for Loyola High School in Los Angeles, Calif., where he was ranked as No. 4 catcher in the country and the No. 6 player overall in the state of California following his senior year... had a .367 career batting average in high school... Loyola has produced other baseball players including Garrett Cooper, Jim McAnany, Tom Satriano, Fred Snodgrass and 1990 World Series winner Tim Layana.