Port ST. Lucy – At this time last year, Pete Crowe-Armstrong was making his senior season debut at a baseball factory known as Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles.
Now, a year later whatever was but normal in the middle, he is getting his first taste of big league spring training at the age of 18 while he waits to pick up his first professional batsman – regardless Not only does he keep the picture here himself, The Mets drafted him with the 19th-overall pick last June.
“I was surprised,” Crowe-Armstrong said Saturday after a full-squad workout. “I was working in Scottsdale and I was speaking there. I got a call from [executive director of player development] Kevin Howard and it was a good conversation. He made it very clear, he was like, ‘You are not here to make a team.’ There is something that everyone knows, right? Crazy year again, but a year that allowed me to be here. So I was surprised but I was also super happy, obviously.
“It’s been a long time since. I’ve been anticipating the size of a large sample of Mets people coming together and I’m lucky it happened this month.”
In a regular year, Crow-Armstrong would have made his first debut last summer. Instead, after finishing the minor league season by COVID-19, he spent months following a working draft – six days a week to strengthen his body for his full-time job at the gym and After hitting five in the batting cage. Seven days a week, he said.
Crow-Armstrong later went to the Mets Instructional League in October, his first real introduction to the organization before spring training. Now, MLB.com is trying to soak in the experience per Mets No. 5 prospect, learning from a group that includes Kevin Pilar, Albert Almora Jr. and Malax Smith.
“Being out here, it’s been better than I expected,” Crowe-Armstrong said. “I don’t know what I came here thinking, but last week I’ve learned more than I’ve learned in the past year.”
Manager Luis Rojas said he has heard of Crowe-Armstrong’s maturity, defense, home-plate discipline and awareness – which has led to early investigations into the camp. Especially his defense.
“I’ve been in my area for some time, and I’m throwing BP and I turn around and I see that he catches a fantastic catch.” “He is making diving catches at BP. We have to ask him to take it easy sometimes. But he is quite confident. “
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