With their fifteenth-round selection in the 2025 MLB Draft, the 463rd overall pick, the Mets selected Conner Ware, a left-handed pitcher from Louisiana State University.
Conner Ware grew up with his brother, Bryson, playing baseball on playground and fields around Madison, Mississippi, and later, at Germantown High School in Madison. His brother was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 8th round of the 2023 MLB Draft, and two years later, Conner followed in his footsteps, getting selected by an objectively better organization and playing for an objectively better city.
After graduating in 2022, Conner went undrafted in the 2022 MLB Draft and attended Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Mississippi. In his freshman year, Ware appeared in 6 games for the Wildcats, starting 3, but missed time due to back problems. All in all, he posted a 1.59 ERA in 17.0 innings, allowing 17 hits, walking 3, and striking out 28. In his sophomore season in 2024, he appeared in 7 games, starting 2, once again missing time on the mound, this time because of arm soreness. In the 15.0 innings he did pitch, he posted a 1.80 ERA with 10 hits allowed, 7 walks, and 21 strikeouts.
Eligible to be selected in the 2024 MLB Draft, Ware did not hear his name called. He transferred schools and joined the LSU Tigers. The left-hander looked good in inter-team scrimmages and earlier on in the college season, but Ware had a hard time for most of his season with the Tigers, to the point that Jay Johnson seemingly lost faith in him and did not use him in a single game after May 15- and the Tigers, obviously played many more, winning the NCAA Championship. Appearing in 16 games, starting 6, the southpaw posted a 5.91 ERA in 21.1 innings, allowing 13 hits, walking 18, and striking out 23.
The 6’4”, 205-pound left-hander throws from a three-quarters arm slot. He has trouble repeating his release point consistently, which has led to control and command problems. Ware is fly-ball prone, with a 57.7% fly ball rate with the Tigers; while he only allowed one home run all year, he is unlikely to run a 3.3% HR/FB ratio for his professional career and will need to improve upon his ground ball rate, which was 38.5% in 2025.
His fastball sits in the low-to-mid-90s, topping out at 96 MPH with riding life. He complements it with a high-70s sweeping slider that has flashed 3000 RPM with big vertical and horizontal break. The pitch has a lot of natural movement, and Ware has struggled to land the pitch for strikes as a result. He also throws a low-to-mid-80s changeup as well, but also struggles to command it, and as such, does not use the pitch much.