MINNEAPOLIS — When Dominic Smith met with members of the Mets front office who had arrived from the Red Sox last offseason, he was reminded of how highly that organization regarded him.
As the 24-year-old outfielder/first baseman recalls, Mets director of player development Jared Banner was present in Southern California for the meeting (he had previously worked for the Red Sox alongside new assistant GM Allard Baird) and the two got to reminiscing about draft night 2013, when the Mets used the 11th-overall pick to select Smith from Junipero Serra High School near Los Angeles.
“We talked a bunch about draft night and Boston’s seventh-overall pick and it was between me and [pitcher] Trey Ball, so they kind of remember that a little bit and they reminded me about that,” Smith said.