Two Days, Two Cats - Seymour selected in the 6th by the Mets

The Kansas State baseball club continued to make history today with the selection of RHP Carson Seymour in the 6th round of the 2021 MLB Draft by the New York Mets with the 172nd-overall pick. It marks the first time that K-State has had two pitchers taken in the first six rounds, and the first time since 2011 that two Wildcats have been taken this early when RHP Evan Marshall and 3B Jason King both went in the 4th round.

Seymour, originally from Temecula, CA, started his collegiate career at Dartmouth, where he made eight appearances in relief as a true freshman, before he decided to head halfway home and sat out the 2019 after transferring to K-State.

He made quite the name for himself during the summer of 2019, making six starts and nine total appearances for the Harwich Mariners of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League. He was only 1-3 with a 5.64 ERA, but pitched well late and threw four scoreless innings to help Harwich earn a semifinal victory.

Headed into the 2020 season, he was ranked the 95th-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, and the #56 prospect by D1Baseball.com. His 2020 numbers lived up to billing in the shortened season, going 2-2 in four weekend starts with a 3.92 ERA, with 25 strikeouts, and was just heating up when the season was prematurely ended. D1Baseball.com boosted him up to #36 in their postseason ratings ahead of the 2020 Draft, but ultimately Seymour was not selected in the very-shortened 2020 MLB Draft and returned to K-State for one more season.

The 2021 season was a bit strange for Seymour, who started the season as the team’s Saturday starter. Only once did he really string two bad games together (@UT and vs. OU), but also couldn’t really string two good games together starter. He got abused by Eastern Illinois, giving up 6 runs in 5.0 innings, and then turned around a few weeks later and held Oklahoma State to just 2 runs in 6.0 innings of work. He went 2-4 in his 10 weekend starts with a 6.75 ERA. But then he moved to the bullpen, swapping places with Casey Ford (who had looked so good in relief of Seymour), and things seemed to click with Seymour coming out of the pen. In his final four games of action, he tossed 12.2 innings of relief giving up just 6 runs. His best outing of the season came in an elimination game in the Big 12 Championships, as he tossed 6.0 innings in relief against Baylor, scattering just five hits and three runs to help keep the Wildcats alive in the tournament.

Headed into the 2021 draft, Athlon Sports had Seymour as high as #47 on their board, but he clearly slipped on some boards as his production wavered through the year.

Seymour can touch the high 90’s with his fastball, and has an above-average curveball, but his best weapon is his slider, which had the highest-average velocity (87.5mph) of any collegiate pitcher in 2021 with at least 30 tracked sliders. He’s got the tools to be a quick riser up through the Mets farm system, even if he starts out playing rookie ball in Florida, and could make his first mark in the league as a reliever.