12
2013
Minor League Q&A: Team Very High On Ynoa, Lupo and Lagares Among Others
An article by 
During a Q&A with Paul DePodesta and other Mets executives on Thursday, I was able to get some brief, but straight answers on a variety of questions I had pertaining to the Mets minor league system, prospects and the draft.
Metsmerized: Was bringing back GCL affiliate a result of your inability to properly place players where they belonged commensurate with their level of development last season? For example having Gavin Cecchini in GCL rather than Kingsport?
Mets Execs: First off, it gives our pitchers more innings and position players more at bats. Secondly, it gives us more flexibility in assigning & developing players at an early stage in our development.
Metsmerized: Was there ever an official statement by the Mets on why we never signed second rounder Teddy Stankiewicz?
Mets Execs: We were unable to agree on a deal with Teddy. As a result we will get an extra pick (76) in the ’13 draft.
Metsmerized: Can you give us the latest medical update on left-hander Steven Matz?
Mets Execs: Steven looks to be ready to come to minor league came as he looks to compete for a full-season spot.
Metsmerized: Will having your Triple-A team in Las Vegas minimize taxi squad moves and temporary promotions because of the higher costs?
Mets Execs: While logistics may be more difficult & cost higher, this should not be a reason to alter our baseball decisions.
A few other things we learned during the Q&A on Twitter and my favorite exchange:
Question: I was astonished when the Mets drafted a SS in Cecchini and then signed a SS Rosario for 2 million. Reasoning?
Mets execs: At the end of the day, you look to acquire the best players and not draft by need. Neither is 20 years old yet
Rebuttal: I understand the best player argument but you didn’t draft the best players. Hawkins was still out there.
- There’s no chance that prospect Wilmer Flores will be moved to the outfield and instead he’ll continue to play third base and second base. Flores doesn’t have the instincts, range or the arm to play in the outfield.
- Mets believe their farm system is better than the No. 18 ranking they received from Baseball America. I would agree with them on that.
- After Zack Wheeler, the Mets see Cory Mazzoni, Rafael Montero, Logan Verrett, Jacob DeGrom and Darin Gorski as the next wave of arms moving toward the majors. By the way, they added Gorski to the 40 man roster and they said he will compete for a spot on the Mets in Spring Training.
- Mets are very high on Juan Lagares. When pressed why they haven’t produced a quality outfielder since Darryl Strawberry, they came back with Lagares and then added that they are impressed with his instincts at CF and are excited with his performance in Winter Ball, citing his bat and his 8% walk rate. They said Lagares could provide depth for Mets outfield this season.
- I get the sense they are not as thrilled with Matt den Dekker. They didn’t say as much, it’s just the vibe I got. When asked if we’d see him in 2013 they responded, “as a Triple-A player, Matt is obviously close. He has some things we want him to work on, but hopefully we see him soon.”
- Another player the Mets are high on is RHP Gabe Ynoa. He was one of the most impressive starting pitchers at Brooklyn last season (2.23 ERA, 6.40 K/BB). They cited his “excellent control w/ good feel & some stuff”. They also added he will certainly be with a full season league to start 2013. Considering the logjam, I figure Savannah and not St. Lucie.
- When asked if Noah Syndergaard could start at Binghamton, they said he will most likely start at Single-A St. Lucie. That makes sense.
- For those of you who have kept tabs on MMO favorite Vicente Lupo, the team confirmed that he will be making his way stateside after tearing up the DSL. We’ll most likely see him on the GCL team. They are excited to get a longer look at him and cited his incredible bat.
Lots of great information here….
Thanks to the Mets for doing these types of exchanges whether on Twitter, Conference Calls or other events. I’ve got to give them props for always making themselves available and allowing us to get a good feel for what’s going on with the organization. It wasn’t always like this.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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Thanks for the info.
In terms of “waves” right now the first wave ( Harvey, Wheeler, Mejia, Familia, McHugh, Edgin and to a much lesser degree Carson or El. Ramirez) is hitting Mets land in 2013.
It’ll be followed by a lower ceiling but still deep wave of pitchers with above average command and sometimes pretty solid stuff such as Montero, Mazzoni, DeGrom, Gorski, Verrett, Leathersich and others that should be available at some point for the 2014 Mets. At worst, this group could help give the Mets a legit homegrown bullpen and also some back-end rotation depth.
For 2015, a higher upside wave led by Syndergaard, Fulmer, Tapia, Mateo, Robles, Ynoa or even Matz seems on its way.
Basically, the performance of these waves of young pitching will determine whether the entire rebuilding process was worth it and actually works. Plus, they’ll provide for trade bait. And the numbers should improve the odds that in spite of natural attrition rates, several young arms should make it eventually…
Actually, if you look at the history of pitching prospects, especially those highly touted, the key is to stay healthy. Sadly, with the Mets medical quacks, this does not bode well. But you look at a lot of the pitching “crashes” of prospects, it was usually an injury that derailed them. Mark Fidrych, Brien Taylor, Don Gullet. Hell even Dwight kept producing in spite of all his off field issues until an injury (shoulder if I recall) bit him.
Mets minor league starting pitchers somehow managed to avoid any sort of serious injuries in 2012. So maybe they’re handling the young pitching better now than in the past. Besides Mejia – who was already battling injuries at the end of 2010, there weren’t any serious injuries to SP prospects in 2011 either, come to think of it.
Cool. If lagares can play good centerfield defense then he might be able to be a starter.
Glad to see the Mets high on Gorski and that he has a chance to make the team out of spring training. It looks like Lagares has redeemed himself in winter ball. Prior to last season he was the second or third ranked outfielder on the Mets behind only Nimmo.
Can someone please expand on Lupo. Don’t know much about him and he sounds very interesting.
http://metsmerizedonline.com/2012/12/mmo-prospect-pulse-vicente-lupo-lf.html
Check that out, Sloatsburg.
i relish these kind of posts. Even if no detailed information, just being able to gauge the clues given by Mets Execs in response is insightful. Thanks very much.
And i totally agree with Dr. Dooby: the Mets’ prospect pitching pipeline is incredibly deep and laden with intriguing talents, whose upside, in many cases (DeGrom, Montero, Leathersich, Koralek, Whitenton, Gorski, Pill, Lara) remains to be clarified.
With so much depth, even with the Law of Averages doing its dirty work, still, it would seem the NY Mets may well enjoy a very strong MB SP rotation & BP for a nice string of years.
According the report on your link, he is another mets prospect who cant field. Too bad they are not an AL team since they so much love to sign players who cant field a position. On top of that, in yesterdays top 25 report it said he was caught using PEDs.
Who said Lagares was caught using PEDs???? You got a link?? That’s a bunch of phukking BS!!!! Here we go with another Minaya player bashing based on BS. Not surprised it came from you BTW considering your track record with bashing the same players/GM Jessep bashes.
Maniac,
I was referring to Lupo, look at the top 25 prospects list report from yesterday please.
I dont see anything on Lupo either. He has never been caught using either for that matter.
Ooops, it was muno not lupo. And by the way I dont even know who drafted him and I frankly never heard of him before. I want the Mets to have good players. Thats the main thing and I am not on a mission to attack minaya every chance i get so calm down.
Lagares over Den Dekker smacks of organizational bias — this overblown focus on taking a walk. Granted Den Dekker fell apart after he was promoted to AAA, but you could argue he wasn’t given time to adjust (he has a pattern of struggling then adjusting at every level). Den Dekker did WAY better at the same level (AA) than Lagares did (MDD: .340avg/.397obp/.563slg to JL: .283/.334/.389 … it’s not even close). Lagares is younger and a little taller (if that matters), but I’ve seen scouting reports outside the Mets org that are seem to like Den Dekker a lot — esp. his defense.
Well that is the bias you have to live with. Every organization establishes what parameters they find important and use their own metrics to rate players. The Mets, at this time, value OBP.
That said, Den Dekker is a major question mark as is Lagares. Neither of them are going to be confused with Harper emerging out of the minors. We will see in the next year or two if either of them is of help at the major league level.
I think it’s less about walks and way, way more about strikeouts. Den Dekker struck out in over 28% of his plate appearances in AAA. That’s just not an acceptable number for a AAA player, as a guy striking out that much is easily going to eclipse 30% in the majors against the best pitchers in the world. Think of Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the majors this season and then add more strikeouts, that’s probably what you could expect from den Dekker in the majors right now. That’s a big issue that he’s got to fix.
Yes it is nice to get a pulse for the pipeline. That pick was strange. They talk about drafting best players and highest ceilings & then take a very conservative pick with a very limited ceiling. Hawkins was sitting there at a position of need with a tremendous amount of upside. The only way that makes sense is if they wanted to save to over slot on other picks. So they draft Stankiewicz who has tremendous upside and is the type of player you don’t mind going over slot for. However, these are out Met’s and if there not doing something to torture the fans then there just not happy. So you start thinking another stud arm with stupid upside were adding but noooooooo. As per Baseball America we will keep him hanging then not even offer slot.
Also, per Baseball America, the Mets, offer to Stankiewicz, ”never came within 10 percent of his $680,400 pick value.”
This is … odd. The Mets had the money to offer Stankiewicz his full pool value and in fact could have offered him up to $185,600 over his slot value without incurring even financial penalties. Here’s the math: the Mets’ total draft allocation was $7,151,400. Without Stankiewicz, the team had committed $6,285,400 against the cap. Remember, all picks in the top 10 rounds carry allocations. Every dollar spent on a pick in the first 10 rounds counts against the draft cap, and every dollar above $100,000 for a player outside the top 10 rounds also counts against the cap. Again, Stankiewicz’s slot value was $680,400. The Mets were $185,600 under slot on the rest of their picks (if the bonuses report at Baseball America are correct). They could have offered him up to $866,00. And yet, if Baseball America’s reporting is correct, and the Mets did not get within 10% of his value, their max offer was $612,360, or 90% of his $680,400.
So the Mets let a decent prospect go for $68,040? Really? That’s roughly 2% of the $3.5 million the team is paying Jon Rauch and his 0.2 fWAR for his work during the 2012 baseball season
Sounds like a great idea one you would need 3 GM’s for.
Not too many realize what a terrible overall job the Mets did in the 2013 draft. Chad MacDonald was the real genius behind the 2011 draft, but he didn’t want to stick around and joined Minaya in San Diego. So when you look at the players who did so well in the low minors last season that were signed in 2011, think MacDonald not DePo. When we look back at 2012, think DePo.
Or look at Tommy Tanous, the actual scouting director who replaced Chad McDonald.
yup….
we’ve had 3 scouting directors in the past 3 seasons
Tommy is actually a JP crony from Toronto
Chad had no previous experience with Sandy / JP or Depo, im shocked he was ever hired
This is def shaping up to be the good ol boys club
The 2012 draft doesn’t look too exciting for now. That said, ir’s way too early to assess it in any sort of way. Let’s at least give every member of this class a full spring training and full season before drawing conclusions – especially considering for several very young kids out of HS that contributed to Kingsport to having the youngest roster in the Appy League.
In general, the 2012 draft pool was considered as thinner than the 2011 or 2010 pools.
And I also don’t understand the glorification of 2nd rounder Ted Stankiewicz. The failure to sign him does increase the 2013 draft budget – where the Mets wouldn’t have had the benefit of an extra pick. So essentially you lose one year of development time in exchange for a higher budget that will allow the team to be more aggressive in later rounds. Sure signing him would have been preferable. However it’s not as if Stankiewicz looks like the next Dylan Bundy. Baseball America rated him the # 66 prospect out of College for the 2013 draft. So, actually he may well be available again when the Mets extra 2nd rounder comes up again, though it seems doubtful the Mets will pick him again after lowballing him last summer….
I cant wait for Lupo to get over here n play stateside. He’s probably our best outfield prospect but has a ways to go. Plus he has such varying scouting reports but you rarely see someone this young who has such great vision of the strike zone. If he is this selective now & his power is still developing and nowhere near the top you have to wonder what his ceiling is.
Lupo hit .343 (70-204) and had more walks (46) than strikeouts (45) in 65 games for the DSL Mets 2. This helped him finished with a .500 on-base percentage, the highest in the history of the Dominican Summer League. The 18-year-old finished with 10 home runs, one behind the league lead. Lupo led the DSL Mets II to a 44-26 record and a Boca Chica North Division crown.
Gorski is a keeper. Attend B-Met games and watched him pitch often. He has a low 90′s fastball and a good breaking ball. He was working hard on a change and his secondary stuff. i often sit behind home plate where the pitchers chart, and the kid is a real student of the game. He’s got a good head on his shoulders.
Real updates on the Mets straight from the horses mouth? What a novel idea. Thanks for the updates. The entire Brooklyn Cyclones rotation last year showcased some of the best young up and coming arms in the entire system. 2013 is going to be a big year in terms of seeing how good they really are at High A.
Hi Joe-
Interesting that their only response for not signing Teddy Stankiewicz was to say they couldn’t come to an agreement. You posted last summer that the Mets scouted this kid – who some said was an eventual ML pitcher and that they were happy to draft him. But instead they never offered him the maximum slot money ($680,000), offering instead only $800,000.
Stankiewicz father said he would have signed for slot – but the Mets never called on the last day to up the offer.
I find it difficult to believe that the Mets – who claim they are rebuilding through the draft and acquiring young players – wouldn’t have come up with the $80,000 (or what Jeff has paid for his sunglasses through the years) it would have taken to sign this kid.
What is your take about what went wrong?
Your previous post:
http://metsmerizedonline.com/2012/07/the-curious-case-of-teddy-stankiewicz.html
Hi tlagee,
It looks like we’ll never get anything more than this as far as a response from them. I tried to give them an opportunity to respond to Teddy and his family’s comments after I spoke to them and before I wrote that other article, and they respectfully declined. It is what it is.
The funny thing is that a few weeks later they turn around and give the Dominican shortstop German Rosario a $1.7 million dollar bonus, or about three times more than what Stankiewicz wanted.
This after they just selected a shortstop Gavin Cecchini with their top pick AND a year after they gave Evans, a 4th round pick, $640,000 or more than what they offered Teddy.
Danny Muno was already ahead of all of them and with Ruben Tejada holding his own and the the organization starving for outfielders they left Courtney Hawkins on the table and the White Sox quickly scooped up the future phenom who’s been compared to Bo Jackson with the next pick. He was named minor league player of the year in the Sally and breezed through three levels in his first season. Cecchini never got out of Rookie ball and batted .245.
In other words, WHAT THE HECK???
I’m never gonna bring up the Stankiewicz pick to them again because I don’t want to seem like I’m being a pain in the ass to them.
Also, the amount they paid Rosario was a record amount for an IFA free agent and he wasn’t even the top IFA shortstop.
Obviously this showed they had little confidence and doubts about their Phil Evans move in 2011 and then the Cecchini move in 2012. That’s just my own hunch.