Baseball America released its farm system rankings entering the 2019 season and despite trading away quite a few of their top prospects, the Mets placed 19th yet again. The Mets also ranked 19th in Baseball America‘s 2018 midseason rankings.
Prior to the 2018 season, the Mets were ranked 27th by BA after graduating Amed Rosario, Dominic Smith, and Robert Gsellman to the major leagues and poor seasons from Justin Dunn, Desmond Lindsay, and Tomas Nido. The Mets’ system had a huge jump this year due to improvements from several of their lower-level players and continuing progress from several of their top prospects.
Baseball America pointed out 1B Peter Alonso and SS/2B Andres Gimenez as players that should soon make an impact in Queens. Alonso enjoyed an successful 2018 campaign that put him on the map as one of the top first-base prospects in the minors. He went deep on a 103 mph fastball from Nate Pearson in the AFL All-Star game and broke several Mets StatCast records throughout the season.
Meanwhile, Gimenez continued to impress both offensively and defensively. Despite being one of the youngest players at his level, he increased his power output and advanced his approach at the plate. He could debut in Queens by the end of the 2019 season.
Baseball America also noted the improvements that a few of the lower-level hitters have made. Specifically, they mentioned SS Ronny Mauricio, 3B Mark Vientos, and SS Shervyen Newton. Both Vientos and Mauricio have gotten love from other publications this week with FanGraphs comparing Mauricio to Fernando Tatis Jr. They also likened Vientos’ development path to Nolan Arenado‘s.
While the trio of Gimenez (30), Alonso (48), and Mauricio (98) made Baseball America’s top 100 list, Matt Eddy noted that Vientos also has the potential to appear on it very soon.
Brodie Van Wagenen has traded away quite a few prominent prospects this winter, most notably Jarred Kelenic, Luis Santana and Justin Dunn, so it would be interesting to see where the system would rank if they were still in the organization
With several pitchers returning from lengthy injuries, it’ll be interesting to see where the system falls in time for the 2020 season.
