Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, spoke with Mets VP of Player Development and Scouting Paul DePodesta about the state of the Mets farm system.
“First, I think the system when we first arrived was underrated,” Paul DePodesta insisted. “It included current big leaguers like Dillon Gee,Ruben Tejada, Lucas Duda and Kirk Nieuwenhuis, among others. Our job is to just add as many talented players as we can each and every year, while graduating the more advanced players to the big leagues, and we’re very happy with what we’ve been able to do both domestically and internationally over the past two years.”
“Admittedly, our position players are behind our pitchers — our pitchers led all of minor league baseball in ERA — but we think we added some key guys in last year’s draft, and some of our international players continue making progress. There are some position players we’re very excited about. But, collectively, it’s not as deep as the pitching.
“It is true that the new collective bargaining agreement has slowed the restocking of the system. The Mets originally aimed to go over slot in the draft and be more aggressive internationally, but the new rules that cap spending largely prevent that. Certainly the new CBA caused us to reevaluate the mechanics of what we do, but it didn’t change our approach, which has been to find and acquire the best players possible, regardless of high school or college, domestic or international, or big-dollar or small-dollar demands.”
Read the entire transcript of Adam Rubin’s interview with Paul DePodesta here.
The new front office inherited a minor league system whose richness of talent is only now being realized and it’s good to see them admit as much. Initially, they were not very endearing of what they walked into, but that has changed with the emergence of Matt Harvey and Co.
DePo aptly points out the chasm that divides our pitching prospects from our hitting prospects. We have Wilmer Flores and Travis d’Arnaud on the cusp of the majors, but after that there’s little to get very excited about. We have some sleepers like Vicente Lupo, but it’s far too early to hang your hopes on them. Consecutive first rounders Brandon Nimmo and Gavin Cecchini didn’t hit the ground running.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Mets swap some low level pitching depth to bring in equal value in hitting prospects with a team that has the inverse problem as we do.
