Aiden Robbins went into the first night of the 2026 MLB Draft feeling good. After a successful junior season at the University of Texas, he was one of the higher-ranked outfielders in the draft class.
Baseball America had him at No. 28. MLB Pipeline had him at No. 29. There was some thought that he could have been a first-round pick. But the first round came and went, and he was not selected. Then the same thing happened in the second round. Finally, over halfway into the third round, Robbins got the call. It was the Mets.
He knew he was going to go high, and pick No. 92 is still high. But he thought he’d go higher. When the call came, he said it was a relief.
“It wasn’t too fun, to be honest,” Robbins said. “I had a lot of support around me, so that was really good. I had the draft party in my backyard, so it was pretty awesome. Had a bunch of family members there, and friends and teammates and stuff like that, so that part saved me from a lot of mental distress and stuff. But I was pretty pissed, to be honest. I thought I put out a better show than what people ultimately nitpicked at, and, you know, we’re here now, so I don’t really care too much about it now. But in the moment, it was frustrating, really frustrating. I was excited. I was really excited for the day, and my expectations were high, and, you know, shit happens. And it’s alright. But I’m here, I’m in High-A, and I’m rolling, so feeling good.”
Aiden Robbins. Photo by Dillon Williams / Brooklyn Cyclones
A Yardley, Pennsylvania native, Robbins grew up a Yankees, Knicks and Commanders fan in Phillies and Eagles country. While he wasn’t a fan of the local teams, most of his family and friends were. Everyone was excited for him, of course, but he joked that there was an initial reaction of “Oh no, the Mets!” when the news broke.
Except for one friend.
“One of my buddies actually brought a bag full of Mets paraphernalia because his dad was a huge Mets fan,” Robbins said. “His dad ended up passing away a couple of months ago, but he was always trying to get me to the Mets for the past couple years. I get the call, I go and sit on the couch, and he comes out after it happened, and he’s all decked out in Mets gear. He already knew it before. He pretty much knew it, and he was yelling. It was a pretty awesome moment. It made it a lot more special just knowing that somebody else got some joy out of this.”
The draft was on July 11. On September 1, Robbins joined the Brooklyn Cyclones and homered in his first-ever High-A game, the culmination of what was a whirlwind 15 months for the 21-year-old.
Coming out of high school, Robbins wasn’t really on the MLB Draft radar, so he headed to Seton Hall. It was a spot for him to play every day, get a lot of exposure, and ultimately be a launchpad for him to transfer to a bigger program. He had a very successful two seasons for the Pirates, including hitting .422/.537/.652/1.189 as a sophomore en route to an All-Big East First Team selection.
Then came an opportunity with the Texas Longhorns. He officially transferred in June of 2025 and saw his power output jump significantly the following season. After hitting 12 home runs across two seasons and 96 games for Seton Hall, he hit 24 in 60 games for Texas.
Robbins credits much of the development to five-time MLB All-Star Troy Tulowitzki, Texas’ hitting coach.
“Just the right coaching,” Robbins said. “Just the right information, the right knowledge. Troy Tulowitzki is an amazing hitting coach, amazing player and just amazing person. So, he knew going into it what he wanted to do, I knew what I wanted to do, and now let’s get some more juice. Ultimately, it was just getting better with my load and being more balanced. Just letting it eat, too. Getting my swing off, not cheating myself out of any at-bats or anything. Really swinging the shit out of the stick, to be honest. That was our motto.”
It was a really interesting trade-off that took place for Robbins in his one season for Texas, when he transitioned from a more contact-oriented approach to a more power-oriented one. The power jumped substantially, but that came with more swing-and-miss. In his sophomore year for the Pirates, Robbins struck out 12.5% of the time. In his junior year for the Longhorns, he struck out 22.9% of the time.
His slugging percentage went up, but his batting average and on-base percentage both dropped about 100 points. Some of this can be attributed to simply facing higher-caliber pitching in the SEC than he did in the Big East, and he also had to learn how to hit for more power now that he had more he could tap into.
“At Seton Hall, I wasn’t filled out or anything,” Robbins said. “I was kind of a scrawnier player, so, just taking what I was given and just run with that. And then going to Texas, being able to lift a lot more, put on some weight and some muscle mass, and just focusing a lot on the physical side and not so much mechanical. That came as the season went, but it’s just ultimately just being able to be me and not changing for anybody. And Tulo didn’t want that. Tulo wanted me to stick to what I’ve been doing the whole time. I got to Texas by doing the Seton Hall stuff, and I got here by doing both.”
Less than a week after the draft, Robbins was in Port St. Lucie for 10 days of Mets draft camp. Shortly after that, he made his professional baseball debut in Single-A. He had a good day, going 2-for-6 with a double and two RBI in a 14-run offensive explosion for him and a few of his draftmates.
That game was also the second rehab start for Clay Holmes. A nine-year MLB vet, Holmes made his MLB debut when Robbins was 13 years old. He was traded to the Yankees when Robbins was 16, and Robbins watched Holmes pitch a few times at Yankee Stadium as a fan. In Robbins’ first-ever game of professional baseball, he was playing center field behind Holmes.
“It was crazy,” Robbins said. “First game, Clay Holmes. He got us an ice cream truck afterwards, so it was lit. We had a great time.”
He was promoted to Brooklyn for the final week of the 2026 season, which was an opportunity for him to play less than a two-hour drive away from his hometown.
“It’s always great to get back up north and see family and stuff like that,” Robbins said. “My grandparents were here today. My grandparents haven’t been to a game in years, so it was pretty awesome to see them.”
His promotion to Brooklyn was also a rarity for players in their draft year since the Cyclones became a full-season club in 2021. It’s a decision that stood out to Cyclones Manager Eduardo Núñez as well. It really just doesn’t happen, but Robbins evidently made a strong enough impression that the organization felt confident to push him up that extra level.
“I’m really confident he’s going to be a great thing for us in the organization,” Núñez said.
In six games for the Cyclones to close out the season, he went 6-for-19 with a home run and an .883 OPS. He will almost certainly start the 2027 season in Brooklyn and will be one of the biggest names to watch in the first half of the season.
Even if the MLB season gets delayed due to a potential labor dispute, Minor League Baseball will continue as planned. There’s a real chance that Robbins will be one of the best baseball players actually playing games in all of New York City in 2027, at least for the start of the season.