The New York Mets’ farm system ultimately had a far more intriguing 2023 season than fans could have predicted entering the year. With the disappointing play of the major league club and the subsequent deals at the trade deadline, it’s arguable that more eyes were on the team’s farmhands than on the major leaguers by the end of the season.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Binghamton, where the Rumble Ponies made the postseason with a roster chock full of high-level talent. Every player to lead the organization in a statistical category this season played with the Rumble Ponies at some point, making it a summer to remember in Binghamton. Here are those six players, starting with offensive stats.

Luisangel Acuña, Photo by Bronson Harris of Binghamton Rumble Ponies

Offense

Luisangel Acuña: .294 AVG and 57 SB

Acuña started the 2023 season as a consensus top-100 prospect in baseball and one of the Texas Rangers’ most esteemed assets. He came out of the gates flying, posting a .315 batting average with an .830 OPS and 42 stolen bases in his first 84 games with the Frisco RoughRiders.

Acuña was ultimately acquired by the Mets in the trade that sent Max Scherzer to the Rangers at the deadline. He did not find nearly as much success in Binghamton, posting a .622 OPS with just two homers in 37 games. He recorded another 15 stolen bases in that span, but he saw just about all of his other stats drop off rather significantly.

Acuña’s strong start ultimately helped him maintain the organizational lead in both batting average and stolen bases. He does not have the raw talent that his older brother, Braves superstar outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr., possesses. However, Luisangel does provide a decent amount of pop (39 XBH this season, and his speed is certainly a game-changer. Acuña is most likely to begin the year with Syracuse, and it may not be much longer before he joins the major league squad in Queens.

Jett Williams: .876 OPS

Williams had a superb 2023 in just his age-19 season, making the jump from Low-A to Double-A and seemingly improving with each new challenge placed in front of him. He posted an .832 OPS in 79 games with St. Lucie before posting an outstanding 1.018 OPS in 36 games with Brooklyn.

Williams’ slash line includes a ridiculous .425 OBP, the result of drawing 104 walks in 121 games. He also tends to cause havoc when he does reach base, racking up 45 steals and only being caught stealing seven times. His power at the plate was also a pleasant surprise, as he recorded 43 extra-base hits including 13 home runs.

Williams has an extremely strong command of the strike zone despite being so early in his development as a player. However, he also struck out 118 times, so there is obvious room for improvement. He has demonstrated great positional flexibility in splitting time at both shortstop and center field. His likely home within the Mets’ organization is in the outfield given the team’s long-term commitment to Francisco Lindor. Williams is certainly a player to keep an eye on entering his second full season in the minors in 2024.

Luke Ritter: 27 HR

Ritter entered the 2023 season with 33 home runs in 267 career minor league games, but he found his power stroke early in the summer. He had three multi-homer games and 11 total homers in the span of 15 days, including a three-homer effort on June 11th. He earned a promotion from Binghamton to Syracuse on the back of that strong showing, and he managed to hit 12 more homers the rest of the season with four of those coming in the last five games of the year.

Ritter was a four-year college player before being drafted by the Mets in the 7th round of the 2019 draft, so a player hitting that many home runs in Double-A during their age-26 season is not nearly as exciting as if a younger prospect had done it. Still, Ritter’s power was certainly a welcome development, and he also drastically improved his walk rate. It’s unclear if Ritter will amount to anything more than a reserve player with plus power. Given the Mets’ struggles this season with dipping into the minors for reliable injury fill-ins, that might be enough to see him get a shot in the majors at some point in 2024.

Pitching

Tyler Stuart: 2.20 ERA

Stuart had perhaps the most impressive season of any Mets minor-league pitcher. In his first full year of professional baseball, he led all minor league starters in ERA, holding that top spot for just about the entire season. He did not allow more than two earned runs in any of his first 16 starts, he completed seven innings on five different occasions, and he had four scoreless starts of at least five innings.

Stuart’s strikeout and walk rates were not particularly impressive, but his ability to work out of trouble was superb. He is an imposing presence on the mound at 6’9” and 250 pounds, and he looked every bit the part of a valuable rotation piece moving forward despite not being on many fans’ radar entering the year. Stuart should begin his age-24 season in Double-A, where he finished 2023 by posting a 3.60 ERA across seven starts. If he can replicate his success from this past year, it may not be long before he gets his chance on the big league stage.

Dominic Hamel: 160 Ks

Hamel struck out 145 batters across 119 innings during the 2022 season, and he followed that up by striking out 160 batters in 124 innings this past season. Hamel generates a ton of swing and misses, and when he is on his game, he can be downright dominant on the mound. He closed out the 2023 season with 14 scoreless innings across his final three regular season starts before firing 7 2/3 scoreless innings in his lone postseason appearance.

Hamel does struggle a bit with command, as he issued at least three walks in nine different outings. He also saw his home run rate jump quite a bit, and he generally gave up more contact than in his debut season. Hamel will look to keep the strikeout numbers high while limiting free passes as a likely member of the Syracuse rotation to open his age-25 season.

Christian Scott: 0.86 WHIP

Scott pitched across three levels in the minors this season and did an excellent job of limiting baserunners all year. He allowed 63 hits and 12 walks in 87 2/3 innings on the mound, also racking up 107 strikeouts. He only gave up five home runs, and he managed to post a stellar 2.57 ERA after a more middling 4.45 ERA in 2022.

Scott was a fifth-round pick in the 2021 draft and demonstrated marked improvement over his first professional season. His strikeout rate may have dipped slightly, but he posted better stats across the board while evolving into yet another dependable arm in an already stacked Binghamton rotation. He could start the year at either Double-A or Triple-A, and he will certainly be on the radar of the major league club following his impressive 2023 campaign.