Luke Bonfield turns down New York Mets, will attend Arkansas
By Jack Crosby
The New York Mets were pretty excited about the selections that they made in their most recent MLB Draft, however that feeling may have been soured just a bit on Saturday with the news that one of their top prospects, Luke Bonfield, will not be taking them up on their offer and will instead head off to play collegiate ball for the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Big news for #Arkansas: OF Luke Bonfield (Ranked No. 60 nationally), announces he'll join the #Hogs, turning down @Mets. @PerfectGameUSA
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) June 22, 2014
Yes, the Mets were very excited about the work that they were able to do in the draft a few weeks ago, as scouting director Tommy Tanous pointed out immediately after the event was over, while they still believed they had a shot at keeping Bonfield within the system.
“We wrapped up what we feel is a successful Draft,” said scouting director Tommy Tanous. “We had some targeted players after Round 10 and were successful in drafting them.
“I think that in the later rounds, you’re looking for some upside and taking some shots with some guys that you feel have high potential, but for whatever reason fell in the Draft, whether it was signability or maybe a little bit of performance. And we feel like we executed that plan pretty well today.”
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Still, it should not be overlooked that while some might be shocked by this move, that shouldn’t in actuality because while humbled by being selected by a Major League team, Bonfield made it common knowledge that he leaning heavily toward going to Fayetteville.
“Cool to get drafted by my hometown team,” Bonfield tweeted. “But it’s gonna take a lot for me not to attend Arkansas at this point. We will see what happens.”
Well, we saw what happened on Saturday, and that’s Arkansas getting one of the best prospects in the country out of the famed IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
Bonfield was pretty highly regarded coming into the draft, ranking 168th according to MLB.com and 187th by the experts at Baseball America.