Francisco Alvarez/Photo by Allen Greene Photography
Baseball America put out all of their Top 30 prospect lists on Thursday as they continue to grow their extensive minor league coverage.
Before diving into the list, remember that Baseball America ranked the Mets overall system 25th out of 30 teams last week. They have the Mets with two top 100 prospects, No. 66 Ronny Mauricio and No. 67 Francisco Alvarez.
- Ronny Mauricio – SS
- Francisco Alvarez – C
- Brett Baty – 3B
- Matt Allan – RHP
- Andres Gimenez – SS
- Mark Vientos – 3B
- Thomas Szapucki – LHP
- Josh Wolf – RHP
- Kevin Smith – LHP
- David Peterson – LHP
- Jordan Humphreys – RHP
- Junior Santos – RHP
- Franklyn Kilome – RHP
- Michel Otanez – RHP
- Robert Dominguez – RHP
- Alexander Ramirez – OF
- Shervyen Newton – INF
- Freddy Valdez – OF
- Jose Butto – RHP
- Jaylen Palmer – INF
- Dedniel Nunez – RHP
- Walker Lockett – RHP
- Tony Dibrell – RHP
- Daison Acosta – RHP
- Carlos Cortes – 2B
- Ryley Gilliam – RHP
- Ali Sanchez – C
- Quinn Brodey – OF
- Scott Ota – OF
- Hayden Senger – C
The top 21 players on the list is pretty similar to what we have at MMO/MMN with the biggest discrepancy being they don’t have outfielder Adrian Hernandez at all. The group of 22-30 has quite a few names that we don’t have on our list (or my personal) including Lockett, Dibrell, Brodey, Ota, and Senger.
I’m surprised that they had Gimenez slip all the way to No. 5 on the list. While most of the talk has been about him having a disappointing 2019 season, the shortstop was above league average offensively (105 wRC+). He did that as four years younger than the league average and playing top notch defense. And then to to top off 2019, he led the Arizona Fall League with his .371 average and .999 OPS.
Lastly, left-hander Kevin Smith is coming off a 2019 season that saw him earn Mets Minor League Pitcher of the Year honors and led the Mets minors with 130 strikeouts. That being said, I still think that fellow lefty David Peterson ends up having a bigger role at the Major League level. Peterson has the better secondary pitch (BA says best slider in Mets system), posted a 3.19 FIP in 2019, and struck out 9.47 per nine innings. He keeps the ball out of the air (26.8% flyball) as well.
Overall, after the trades of Jarred Kelenic, Anthony Kay, Simeon Woods Richardson, and Justin Dunn, the Mets system lacks talent in the upper levels and will have to rely on developing raw players with upside from the lower levels to improve.
