Champ Stuart

Jervis Harvin Stuart, Jr.

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 175 lb.
• School Brevard College
• High School Christ School

• Born October 11, 1992, in Freeport Bahamas

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Champ Stuart reached AA in 2016.

He is the son of Jervis Stuart, who played in the low minors for the Baltimore Orioles in 1984 and 1985. Champ grew up in Bimini, the westernmost district of the Bahamas. He went to Christ School in Asheville, North Carolina and then attended Brevard College, also in North Carolina. After his junior year, in the June 2013 draft, the New York Mets selected Stuart in the sixth round, one pick after Matt Boyd. The scout was Marlin McPhail. The young man decided to turn pro and played for Kingsport in the Appalachian League (rookie ball). He hit .240/.388/.353 with 11 steals in 13 tries, 26 runs and 34 walks in 43 games, fielding .989 in CF. He was 5th in the league in walks.

With the 2014 Savannah Sand Gnats, he hit .256/.341/.340 with 29 steals in 33 tries. Among Mets farmhands, he was second in steals, four behind Ysidro Perez. In the South Atlantic League, he was 9th in swipes, between Yefri Perez and Adam Engel. He slumped to .176/.271/.242 for the St. Lucie Mets, with 141 strikeouts in 330 at-bats. Speed remained critical for him as he stole 21 bases and was only nabbed three times. He was third in the Florida State League in strikeouts. In the Mets chain, he was 4th in steals and second in whiffs (6 behind Travis Taijeron).

Despite his struggles in high-A ball, he moved to AA in 2016. He split the year between St. Lucie (.265/.347/.407 in 71 G) and the Binghamton Mets (.201/.264/.261 in 43 G). He fielded .992, scored 72 runs, legged out 7 triples and went 40-for-46 in steals but strikeouts remained frequent (168 in 459 AB). He tied Blake Trahan and Jace Conrad for 8th in the FSL in steals (25). Among Mets minor leaguers, he tied Brandon Nimmo for 4th in runs, led in steals (14 more than Patrick Biondi) and led in Ks (two more than Taijeron).

He was part of an all-Bahamian outfield for the Great Britain national team in the 2017 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, starting in CF alongside Antoan Richardson and Todd Isaacs (backed up by a 4th Bahamian, Reshard Munroe). He got their first run of the tourney, doubling off Jason Marquis and scoring on a hit by Isaacs. He got their second run, doubling off another ex-big leaguer, Josh Zeid, and again driven in by Isaacs. He was 3 for 3 in that opener against Israel when he came up in the 8th with two on, two outs and a 5-2 deficit but this time, he was retired by Ryan Sherriff. He had 3 RBI in their win over Pakistan. He finished the event at .487/.500/.733 with 3 runs and 5 RBI in four games. He led Britain in average (.110 ahead of Chavez Young), OBP (tied with Kyle Simmons), slugging (.118 ahead of Albert Cartwright), total bases (11, 3 more than Cartwright), OPS (260 ahead of Cartwright), hits (two ahead of Young) and RBI while being second in runs (two behind Cartwright). For all the qualifiers, he led in hits (one ahead of Keegan Swanepoel, Anthony Phillips, Mike Cervenak and James Beresford) and tied Javy Guerra for second in total bases (11, one behind Carlos Ruiz).

Like his father, Stuart is blessed with great speed.