The 2026 draft class always has a few names that make scouts perk up more than the round number suggests, and Luke McNeillie is quickly becoming that guy for the Mets. New York popped the Florida right-hander in the fifth round at No. 152 overall, and instead of letting him play out the slot-value game, they went over the top to get a deal done fast.
Jim Callis broke down the signing terms and the scouting profile that made McNeillie a fifth-round target.
Per Callis, the Mets landed McNeillie for $500,000, a healthy bump over the $472,500 slot value attached to pick 152. That's the kind of overpay teams reserve for guys they think are getting a bargain-bin draft slot relative to their tools. And the tools here are loud: a fastball that touches 99 mph and an upper-80s slider that misses bats, all from a guy who spent most of his college career coming out of the bullpen.
That reliever usage is the whole story with McNeillie. Florida used him in relief for most of his three years in Gainesville, but evaluators have flagged starter traits underneath the bullpen role, the kind of arsenal depth and delivery that makes teams wonder what happens if you stretch a guy like this out. It's the classic 'we think there's more here than the college role showed' bet, and it's exactly why a fifth-rounder can carry a bonus that looks more like a second- or third-round number.
McNeillie wasn't a mystery arm, either. He came into his final Florida season as a Second-Team Preseason All-American and posted a career-low ERA in 2026 while racking up strikeouts at nearly a 3-to-1 clip over walks, numbers that back up the stuff scouts kept raving about even while he worked in shorter bursts out of the bullpen.
He's also not the only Gator getting a paycheck from this draft. Florida saw six players taken across the class, headlined by Liam Peterson going in the first round to Cleveland, with McNeillie among the group that turned a strong college pitching staff into a strong draft haul. For the Mets, the calculus is simple: pay a little extra now on a live arm with real questions about role, and figure out in pro ball whether the starter traits are real enough to build a rotation piece instead of just another power reliever.