Heading into 2026, MMO named Nolan McLean, Carson Benge and Jonah Tong as the New York Mets’ top three prospects. Now a month into the season, McLean and Benge are big-leaguers, and Tong has faltered a bit. That arguably leaves A.J. Ewing as the Mets’ best prospect. In Double-A, he proved why. Ewing was nothing short of fantastic, and for the second year in a row, earned himself a promotion after just 18 games.

A fourth-round compensatory pick in 2023, Ewing was selected with the selection the Mets acquired after Jacob deGrom left in free agency. He had an up-and-down first full season in pro ball in 2024, and then exploded in 2025. After starting the year in Low-A St. Lucie, Ewing quickly earned a promotion to High-A Brooklyn and then another one to Double-A Binghamton a few months later.

Back in Double-A to begin 2026, he quickly showed 2025 was no fluke.

AJ Ewing
Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

At the plate, Ewing is doing everything right. He’s maintained every aspect of his game from last season, and even improved on them. He’s hitting .387 between Binghamton and Syracuse, up from .315 last year. He’s also walking significantly more, boosting his OBP from .401 in 2025 to .500 in 2026, while keeping his strikeout rate right in line with his previous season mark. He’s still running wild as well with 13 stolen bases in 14 tries.

He’s playing a good center field, and while that’s been by far his primary position for at least the last two seasons, he’s still getting just enough playing time at second base to keep it as an option for him if that’s where the Mets end up needing him. 

But here’s the most exciting part: He’s started hitting for more power. He’s not, and will never, slug like Ryan Clifford. He has started to slug a noticeable amount more, though.

He’s always been able to drive the ball with authority into the gaps for extra-base hits. In 2025, he hit 26 doubles and 10 triples. Some of that has to do with his speed, which is a true plus, but he’s also posted legitimately encouraging exit velocity numbers for someone his size. It’s because of this that there’s always been a thought that he has the potential to hit more home runs as he matures. He was just 20-years-old for most of last season. In theory, there’s plenty of room to grow into more power.

Last year, Ewing hit three home runs in 124 games. This year, Ewing has two home runs in 21 games.

It’s not just homers either. In 16.935% of last year’s games, he has 28.205% of last year’s extra-base hits. For someone who’s still just 21, that’s a seriously notable uptick in power.

Ewing is at Triple-A, so while there’s just a small sample size of publicly available batted-ball data thus far, his .442 expected batting average, .758 expected slugging percentage, .525 xwOBA and 16.7 percent barrel rate are all incredibly encouraging marks over 13 plate appearances.

If he keeps hitting in Syracuse and the Mets keep struggling, there should be nothing keeping him from the big leagues. What else could they have to lose?