Photo: Ed Delany

Binghamton Rumble Ponies starter Jose Butto has been named the Double-A Northeast Pitcher of the Week following another dominant performance. The right-hander tossed six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts on Saturday. He allowed only two hits and walked one.

Butto, 23, had a 4.32 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 58 1/3 innings with the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones before his mid-July promotion to Double-A. The Mets No. 11 prospect (that’s where I have him on upcoming list) has fared much better in his with Binghamton, he has a 1.86 ERA through six starts. The numbers are pretty impressive during that stretch:

29 IP, 20 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 37 K

Butto hasn’t allowed a run over his last three starts and hasn’t walked more than one hitter in game over his last 10 starts. How is Butto dominating Double-A you ask?

It’s an strong four-seamer fastball and changeup combo, the latter being a well above average swing and miss pitch. During his most recent start, Butto had 10 whiffs on his changeup. Baseball America said Butto had the best changeup in the Mets system before the season started and a scout I recently talked to agreed. “It’s among the best changeups I’ve seen this season, he has complete command of the pitch and will throw it in any count. He tunnels it with his fastball well.”

The fastball for Butto has seen an improvement in Double-A in terms of consistency with its velocity. He’s been up to 96 mph recently with the four-seamer and has been sitting 92-94.

Butto’s third pitch is a curveball that he’s shown more confidence in during the 2021 season. It’s still a distance third pitch, but one that has improved since the beginning of the season.

A key stat for Butto is his swinging strike percentage, for the season it’s 15.8% which leads all Mets minor league pitchers (J.T. Ginn is second at 15.6%) that have thrown at least 50 innings in 2021.

Butto will be Rule 5 eligible this offseason and has pitched his way into being a virtual lock to be added to the Mets 40-man roster.