Keith Law of ESPN ranked the New York Mets among his top five farm systems, slotting them fourth behind No. 1 Chicago Cubs, No. 2 Minnesota Twins and No. 3 Houston Astros. (ESPN Insider)
4. New York Mets
The Mets have graduated a few prospects to the majors — Travis d’Arnaud (No. 2 in the system coming into the year) and Jacob deGrom (No. 13) in particular — but the guys still in the system have nearly all taken steps forward. Noah Syndergaard (No. 1) has had an excellent year in the pitchers’ hell of Las Vegas. Brandon Nimmo (No. 5) is hitting for power now that he’s out of Savannah, a terrible park for left-handed power hitters. Catcher Kevin Plawecki (No. 6) continues to receive well, as expected, but he also has hit well enough to push himself up to Triple-A in his second full season.
Eighteen-year-old shortstop Amed Rosario doesn’t look out of place among older players in the New York-Penn League, and he has the instincts and reactions to stay at short if he can find some consistency in the field. And they added the most polished hitter in this year’s draft class, Michael Conforto, who led Division I in OBP. They still have a ton of arms but are heavier on bats at the corners than in the middle infield or center, although Rosario might eventually make up for Gavin Cecchini‘s .194/.269/.247 line in high Class A.
He didn’t even mention my latest favorites Steven Matz, Dilson Herrera and Dominic Smith… The Mets continue to shine with the quality of prospects they are accumulating in the minors. Hopefully that begins to manifest itself on the major league level in the not too distant future.
The major league team still struggles to score runs but thanks to Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia the bullpen seems to have turned a corner. Starting pitching has been middle of the pack, but there’s also reason for optimism with the return of Matt Harvey next season and developing young arms in Jacob deGrom and Zack Wheeler. Hot hitting Wilmer Flores has been ready for regular MLB at-bats for two years now, but is blocked by Ruben Tejada. Left Field also remains a sore spot for the team and is in some sort of 4-man merry-go-round.
