Mets Minors: Storylines to Watch in 2019

While the 2019 major league season is already in full swing, the Mets’ four full-season minor league affiliates are set to kick off their seasons on Thursday; Triple-A Syracuse, High-A St. Lucie, and Low-A Columbia open up at home, while Double-A Binghamton will play on the road in New Hampshire.

Want to sound like an expert on the entire organization? Here are a few of the big storylines worth following this season.

The New Regime

While new General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen was the most high-profile offseason addition to the front office, former Boston Red Sox employees Allard Baird and Jared Banner were brought into the fold as well. Baird will serve as vice president, assistant general manager, scouting & player development, while Banner is the new executive director, player development, essentially calling the shots when it comes to the day-to-day operations of the farm system.

The trio’s impact on the entire organization, from the Dominican Republic, to Syracuse, and all the way up to Queens, has already begun, with veteran depth signings credited to Baird, extensive philosophy shifts, attention to detail, and much more going on behind the scenes.

It will be interesting to see how this new front office values each of their players — in particular, the ones they inherited from the previous group.

Welcome to Syracuse

Perhaps the biggest addition of the offseason was — not Van Wagenen, not Robinson Cano, not Edwin Diaz — but the Syracuse franchise as the organization’s new Triple-A affiliate, representing its return to the International League for the first time since 2012.

Issues with getting players to and from Las Vegas over the past six seasons were well-chronicled, in addition to the problems that simply playing in the Pacific Coast League posed. Instead of having to leave a player’s true performance level up to a model and putting him on a five-hour cross-country flight anyway, roster depth can be more accurately assessed and will only be an hour-and-a-half away (if both teams are at home. Syracuse’s furthest opponent, the Gwinnett Stripers, play 45 minutes from Atlanta with a two-hour-plus flight to New York City).

Another aspect of the affiliate move is the proximity of Syracuse to Binghamton — just over an hour by car. Instead of playing a bullpen game or playing a man because the travel isn’t reasonable, we will likely see more roster maneuvering (to an extent) between Double- and Triple-A.

Either way, players like Jacob Rhame, who was recalled from or optioned to Las Vegas 18 times last season, are breathing a sigh of relief.

Promising Youngsters in Full-Season Ball

One of the first clear shifts in organizational thinking was the aggressive, but warranted, promotion of four of the youngest budding prospects to Columbia. The Fireflies will boast the most interesting roster in the system with 19-year-olds Mark Vientos and Shervyen Newton and 18-year-olds Ronny Mauricio and Simeon Woods Richardson.

Mauricio, who commanded $2.1 million out of the Dominican Republic in 2017, and Vientos, a second-round pick the same summer, will team up to form one of the most exciting left sides of an infield in Minor League Baseball. Vientos’ 11 home runs led the Kingsport Mets in 2018, while Mauricio had an up-and-down debut in the Gulf Coast League but possesses tools that make many a talent evaluator salivate.

A natural shortstop, Shervyen Newton will likely see most of his defensive innings at second base in this configuration. A relatively unheralded signing from the Netherlands in 2015, he broke out last season in Kingsport with a .280/.408/.449 line. Woods Richardson was the Mets’ second-round draft choice less than a year ago and only threw 17.1 innings between the GCL and Kingsport. That the organization is willing to throw him into the fire despite the lack of experience speaks to his raw talent (a mid-90s fastball and plus curve) and maturity.

Szapucki Returns

Joining the fledgling foursome in Columbia will be left-hander Thomas Szapucki, who has not thrown a pitch in a regular season game since July 6, 2017. Fully recovered from Tommy John surgery, the Mets’ fifth-round pick from 2o15 will look to pick up where he left off.

If his stuff is back to where it was pre-surgery, no pitching prospect in the organization has a higher ceiling. A high-90s fastball, put away curve, and average changeup helped him roll through Kingsport and Brooklyn in 2016 and saw him get off to a quick start in Columbia before succumbing to the torn UCL.

That wasn’t the only injury Szapucki has dealt with, however. His 2016 season ended with a stiff back, while 2017 began with a shoulder impingement. 23 in June, he’ll need to stay healthy all season to quell any fears of him simply not being durable enough to stay in the rotation.

Will the Depth Stay?

One of Baird’s public contributions over the offseason was the sheer volume of veteran players brought in on minor league contracts. While Luis Avilan made the major league roster, Rajai Davis, Gregor Blanco, Carlos Gomez, and Hector Santiago (who have combined for over 25 years worth of big league games), among others, will open in Syracuse.

What isn’t known is if the depth, which includes Rene Rivera and Adeiny Hechavarria, will stay. The group likely negotiated opt-out dates into their contracts and will most certainly exercise them if the Mets don’t have a use for them by June. While there really isn’t any issue with that, all of those players could certainly be worth a roster spot in September and potentially the playoffs if a starter goes down with an injury.

Tim Tebow: Year Three

You know the drill by now.

Rule 5 Decisions Looming

The Mets did not have any prospects deemed worthy of a 40-man roster spot ahead of last December’s Rule 5 Draft, but that will change this season. Andres Gimenez and Anthony Kay are virtual locks, but a quartet of Newton, Szapucki, Desmond Lindsay, and Jordan Humphreys will provide the team with important decisions to make.

While Newton’s age and Szapucki’s injury history provide their own question marks, Lindsay simply hasn’t performed since the Mets made him their top draft choice in 2015. While he has had a bevy of injuries of his own, averaging 64 games in three full seasons, Lindsay’s tantalizing tools have produced just a .241/.346/.372 line as a pro. He is repeating High-A to begin what is pretty much a make-or-break year.

Meanwhile, Humphreys is also coming off Tommy John surgery. The 22-year-old right-hander broke out with a 1.42 ERA with 8.9 strikeouts for every walk in Columbia in 2017 but went down with the injury after just two starts with St. Lucie. While his return to the mound won’t be immediate this season, Humphreys does have solid upside to like.

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