2024 Triple-A Rotation Might Be Glimpse Into Mets’ Future

When all is said and done and the Mets break camp following next season’s spring training, there’s a very good chance that their Triple-A club, the Syracuse Mets will be sporting all five of the Mets’ best pitching prospects in their starting rotation.

This year, the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies have been employing a prospect-laden starting pitching staff that has been the envy of the Eastern League. How many minor league teams can run out five talented pitching prospects in their rotation? Unfortunately for Binghamton, the bubble burst a couple months ago when, after 10 starts with the Rumble Ponies Mike Vasil was the first to be promoted to Triple-A Syracuse.

For several seasons now we have heard a lot about the Mets position player prospects, while the pitching prospect front has been pretty quiet. Well, all of that is changing as we speak. With the recent promotion of Vasil to Triple-A and Blade Tidwell from high-A Brooklyn to Binghamton, Rumble Pony manager Reid Brignac has had the luxury of sending forth a very talented starting rotation this season. These players represent the five best Mets pitching prospects in the latest rankings according to MLB.com.

After the trade deadline passed and MLB.com released it’s revised player rankings and the Rumble Ponies rotation graded out very high. Mike Vasil (who was by then at Triple-A) came in ranked as the Mets 9th-best prospect while Tidwell and Christian Scott placed 10th and 12th. Rounding out the rotation is Dominic Hamel and Tyler Stuart,who slot in at 16th and 17th on the Mets prospect rankings. Here are some of the basics on these players:

Mike Vasil

The Mets drafted the 23 year-old, 6-foot-5 225 lb. right-hander out of college in the 8th round of the 2021 MLB draft. His four-pitch arsenal features a four-seam fastball, slider, curve and change-up. The fastball has been sitting in the 93-95 mph range, while his upper 80’s slider and lower 80’s curveball show some decent downward bite. The changeup is undergoing a bit of a transformation this season, and in his most recent outing it was exhibiting good sink.

At the time of this writing, Vasil had made 10 starts this season at Double-A and then 10 starts at Triple-A. He saved his best for his most recent turn through the Syracuse rotation. On Tuesday August 8th, Vasil took a no-hitter into the ninth inning, having to settle for eight hitless innings when the lead-off hitter in the ninth struck a sharp single up the middle. However but he still got the win in a 3-0 victory over Scranton/Wilkes Barre.

Vasil is not the oldest player here, or the tallest. He wasn’t the highest draft pick here and he doesn’t throw harder than everyone on this list. However, he will probably be the first one to make it to Citi Field, and that could be as soon as sometime next season.

ETA: 2024

Blade Tidwell

The 6-foot-4 right-hander was strongly coveted by the Mets during the 2022 MLB Draft. When he was still available in the 2nd round,  the Amazins’ grabbed him out of the University of Tennessee, and they even went above slot to sign him for $1.85 million. After signing last year, he finished off the season with Brooklyn, even making two postseason starts and helping lead the Cyclones to a League Championship.

His fastball has been clocked at 94-96, but has topped out at 98. His frame is still filling out, and the feeling is there maybe another level to his development. But, even right now, his heater is a plus pitch. He also throws a second plus pitch, a hard slider which breaks across two planes, as well as a high 70’s curve and a mid-80’s change-up.

Only 22 years-old, he pitched very well this year at high-A Brooklyn, earning himself a mid-season call-up to Double-A. Since the promotion, he has shown some growing pains with his first few starts, but has started to look more comfortable of late. His overall stats through 20 total starts this year are pretty slick though:

In 97 innings he’s 9-5 with a 3.62 ERA, 126/54 K/BB, 71 hits given up for a .205 average against, and a WHIP of 1.29.

The youngest player here, but perhaps the highest ceiling? Only time will tell.

ETA: 2025

Christian Scott

The 6-foot-4 24 year-old right-hander, was taken by the Mets in the 5th round of the 2021 draft out of the University of Florida. He got his feet wet last year starting and relieving at both the low-A and high-A levels, and there wasn’t a lot to see as the numbers were fairly pedestrian. But this season is a completely different story. To say he’s having a good season would be an understatement. Scott has really rewarded the Mets confidence in him with his development at Double-A.

So far this season his stats look like this:

In 83 innings pitched across 17 game starts, his record is 5-4 with a 2.71 ERA, 99/12 K/BB, 59 hits surrendered for a batting average against of .197 and an 0.86 WHIP.

Don’t let the W-L record fool ya, the peripherals tell the story here. He’s hard to hit, he’s hard to score on, heck, it’s hard to even get on base against him. But best of all is that strikeout to walk ratio. Scott’s a strike thrower, so he should have no problem with the damn pitching clock.

If not the first player here to make it to Citi, then I’ll guess Scott is the second one to do it.

ETA: 2024

Dominic Hamel

The 24 year-old 6-foot-2 right-hander was drafted out of college by the Mets when they grabbed him with their 3rd round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. Last season, Hamel was the minor league leader in strikeouts in the entire Mets system with 145 in 119 innings, and no one else was even close. His sparkling 3.25 ERA was second lowest in the system. His 2022 season was so good it propelled him up the prospect ladder.

Through 21 game starts this season for the Rumble Ponies, and 105 innings pitched, the going has been slightly tougher this year, but Hamel still shows that he has the propensity for strikeouts. Hamel’s peripherals are also fine. He’s got a record of 7-6 with a 4.29 ERA, 130 K’s so far against 41 walks. Opponents are only hitting .243 against him and he’s got a 1.31 WHIP.

His stuff is good. Around 91-94 on the fastball and sometimes touching mid-nineties. But what makes it hard to Hamel is his spin rate. It’s apparently pretty good, which enables it to not drop so much on it’s way through the zone and thereby giving the illusion of rise. What the old-timers used to refer to as a “high-riding fastball.”

Here’s a good question for ya, what do you call a low-80’s slider with a spin rate of 2,800-3,000 rpms? No, it’s not a flying saucer, it’s Hamel’s freakish slider. He’ll also utilize a mid-70’s curveball which, like his mid-80’s changeup, are works in progress, although the changeup has begun to show some late fade the opposite direction of his slider.

ETA: 2025

Tyler Stuart

The Mets took the 23 year-old right-hander in the 6th round of the 2022 draft out of Southern Mississippi. Before I go any further, I think you should sit down because the shock might bowl you over when I tell you this right-hander is 6-foot-9 and weighs in at 250 lbs.

Yup, he’s a big fella alright. He was dazzling them through 14 starts at Brooklyn the first half of this season, so the Mets moved him on up to Double-A where he could pick on somebody his own size. His overall stats for 2023 are:

104.2 IP over 20 starts, a 6-2 record with a scintillating 2.32 ERA, 106/32 K/BB, 88 hits for an average against of .228 and a 1.15 WHIP.

His stuff is not what you might think considering his size. He’s more of a sinker/slider guy than a fireballer. Think Rick Reuschel for all of you that go that far back. Stuart’s fastball is a two-seam sinker in the low-90’s, but he pitches backwards, which means means he relies on his number two, his low-80’s slider as his primary pitch, throwing it 50 percent of the time.

Stuart was a reliever in college and right up until this season, so he never had the need to refine his third pitch, a changeup. Up until now, his slider with it’s two-plane break has been his bread and butter pitch, but he’ll need that changeup if he’s going to stay in the starting rotation going forward.

ETA: 2025

Now, I go way back. I’ve been a Mets fan my whole life and I’m pretty old. My first game at Shea Stadium was 1967, I was ten, and I kept score. I know this because I still have that scorecard.

I remember when Tom Seaver was a puppy, and Jerry Koosman too. I remember when Nolan Ryan was a rookie Met, and Tug McGraw, and Gary Gentry and 1972 National League Rookie of the Year: Jon Matlack.

And, of course: Craig Swan and Generation K, and Doctor K.

I also remember a parade of expensive free-agent pitchers come along too. And there were some greats, players who contributed mightily to Metdom. But the home grown kids are always something special.

There’s something special about this group, too. Talents coming together like with these five kids is a true testament to hard work, great scouting and great player development. Let’s Go Mets.