Top Mets prospect Parada notches a pro first to open High-A second half

One home run sailed far over the fence. The other bounced off the wall and rolled into center field. No matter how the dingers played out, top Mets prospect Kevin Parada still touched ‘em all twice for his first career multihomer game.

“It felt good,” Parada said. “It’s a good way to get the second half of the High-A season going. Hit a home run, felt good … then got the inside-the-park home run. I don’t even remember the last time I did that. Probably Little League.”

MLB’s No. 24 overall prospect finished the game with three hits -- his fourth such effort of the season -- reached base four times and matched his season high with three RBIs in High-A Brooklyn’s 6-1 win over Hudson Valley.

The long balls were Parada’s sixth and seventh of the year, giving him three dingers in his past five games after clubbing just four in his first 54 games of 2023. Over his past 10 games, the backstop is slugging .650 to go with a .375 average and .432 OBP.

“I’m just trusting the process. It’s such a long season, and it’s my first year of professional baseball, so I’m just getting used to seeing pitches that you don’t necessarily see in college or high school,” Parada said. “Every arm that gets thrown out there is a good arm, so just trying to simplify things, make it easy and trust my instincts to do what I can, and tonight was a result of that.”

Parada was certainly seeing the ball well on Friday, drawing a six-pitch walk in his first trip to the plate before demolishing an 0-2 pitch to left-center off Renegades righty Zach Messinger. It was one of three long balls the Cyclones clubbed in the third frame.

His next dinger wouldn’t come so conventionally. After singling to center in the fifth, the 21-year-old came up to the plate in the sixth against right-hander Carlos Gomez on the mound and fellow Top 100 prospect Alex Ramírez at second base.

Parada worked a 2-2 count before lifting the sixth offering high to center. Left fielder Aldenis Sanchez and center fielder Spencer Jones tracked the ball down and collided at the fence, allowing the ball to bounce back into center field to give Parada his first professional inside-the-park home run.

“I think I was just super exhausted after running the bases as hard as I did,” Parada said with a laugh. “I got around second base and all of a sudden noticed that I might have a shot at going home. I felt like I gave everything I had in the tank.”

Taken with the 11th overall pick of the 2022 Draft, Parada now sits atop the Mets organization after the graduations of Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty. The Georgia Tech product prides himself on his catching ability as much as his hitting, and it showed with him behind the dish for another strong outing from No. 5 Mets prospect Blade Tidwell, who fanned nine across six frames.

“I feel like I’m in a really good spot with what I’m doing technique-wise behind the plate,” Parada said. “It’s just continuing to get those reps so it becomes even more second-nature … just continuing to grow and learning these pitchers.”