Jose Butto. Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized


AAA: Syracuse Mets (6-3) 9, Rochester Red Wings (1-7) 1  Box Score

The Mets’ offense exploded for nine runs on ten hits, five of which went for extra bases, in Sunday’s game against the Red Wings. Most of the damage came in a six-run second inning off of former Mets prospect Franklyn Kilome. Baty returned to the lineup for the first time since Tuesday after missing several games with a thumb injury. After not having a multi-walk game until the middle of June last year, Mauricio drew two walks in this early-April game, although perhaps the fact that the Red Wings walked 11 batters total in the game lessens the significance of this event. Regardless, Mauricio has gotten off to an incredibly hot start to the season over his first nine games.

After struggling a bit in his first start of the season, Butto had a dominant performance in Sunday’s start as he needed just 77 pitches to make it through six scoreless innings. After allowing three of the first four batters he faced to reach base, he settled in to retire all but one of the next 17 batters he faced. Courtney was making his Triple-A debut after appearing in just six Double-A games last season; at 26 years old, the aggressive assignment makes sense and his first appearance was without major issue.

High-A: Brooklyn Cyclones (2-1) 4, Jersey Shore BlueClaws (1-2) 2  Box Score

The Cyclones had just five hits in Sunday’s game and went just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position but managed to push across four runs thanks to a bases-loaded walk and two key singles with runners in scoring position in the seventh inning. After striking out twice in each of the first two games of the season, Ramirez had his strongest performance so far with two hits, including a key bases-loaded hit that brought home two runs. After playing primarily in the outfield last season, Palmer has exclusively played third base so far in 2023. De Los Santos stole 70 bases in 2022 and has picked up right where he left off this season with three steals without being caught stealing through the first three games of the season.

Stuart was outstanding in his Brooklyn debut, shutting out the BlueClaws for four innings. If there was one area for improvement, it would have been his control, as he threw just 36 of his 63 pitches for strikes and walked a couple of batters, but the overall line is quite impressive. Geber was similarly strong in piggybacking Stuart but could not quite close out the game, requiring Juarez to come in for the final two outs.

Low-A: Daytona Tortugas (3-0) 6, St. Lucie Mets (0-3) 3  Box Score

The Mets were swept in their opening series against the Tortugas. The first seven batters in the lineup had at least one hit in this game but outside of Davis’ home run in the sixth inning (which left his bat at 107.6 MPH and travelled 402 feet) and a brief two-run rally in the eighth inning, the offense could not get much going. Davis is in St. Lucie on a rehab assignment and should make his way to Triple-A relatively soon.

De La Cruz did not have a terrible first start of the season, but he did struggle to put hitters away leading to a very high pitch count early in the game: 19 of his 66 pitches were fouled off, leading to very long at bats. He did sit in the mid-90s with his fastball and topped out at an impressive 97.2 MPH. Atencio had a very promising 2022 but struggled mightily in his first appearance of the new season. If there was a bright side to his performance, his peripheral stats were all decent and in line with his previous year’s metrics: an 87.5 MPH average exit velocity against is fairly average and his spin rates on his fastball and curveball were both in the 2400-2500 RPM range.