With their twelfth-round selection in the 2025 MLB Draft, the 373rd overall pick, the Mets selected Truman Pauley, a right-handed pitcher from Harvard University.
Paul K. Doyle, Truman Pauley’s maternal great grandfather played baseball during his senior season there, the 1937-38 season and his maternal grandfather, William K. Doyle graduated from Harvard Business School, so it was destiny that Truman Pauley eventually attend the Cambridge institution. Truman, who was born in Pacific Palisades, California, attended Windward, a prestigious college-prep school in Los Angeles, where he graduated in the top 10% of his class in 2023.
In his first year at Harvard, the 20-year-old right-hander posted a 6.14 ERA in 44.0 innings over 15 games, allowing 37 hits, walking an even 41 and striking out an even 41. He played for the North Shore Navigators of the New England Collegiate Baseball League and posted a much improved 2.08 ERA in 26.0 innings there. Over the course of his nine appearances and five starts, he allowed 17 hits, walked 14, and struck out 47.
The draft-eligible sophomore returned to Harvard for the 2025 season. Appearing in 14 games and starting 12 of them, the right-hander posted an improved 4.61 ERA in 70.1 innings, allowing 42 hits, walking 48, and striking out 91. Following the conclusion of the season, Pauley played for the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod Collegiate Baseball League.
The 6’2”, 200-pound right-hander throws from a high-three-quarters arm slot, dropping and driving off the mound. His fastball sits in the low-to-mid-90s, topping out at 95 MPH with arm-side movement and life up in the zone; the pitch has been measured with 20 inches of induced vertical break, an elite reading. He pairs it with a low-80s sweeping slider that has been measured at 2,700 RPM, giving it ample horizontal movement, a mid-80s gyroscopic slider with late two plane depth, and a low-80s changeup. His gyro slider is his main strikeout pitch, while his changeup is rarely used. His command is still very much a work in progress and his pitches all play down as a result, but the right-hander trusts in his stuff and will throw his breaking balls in any count.