Mets Minors Weekly Report: Pitching Continues Dominating

The second week of the season was a success for the likes of Syracuse and Brooklyn, who won their series, but not so much for Binghamton and St. Lucie, who lost their series. There were several offensive players, such as Rylan Bannon and Alex Ramírez, who shined for their respective teams, but it was really a week dominated by the pitchers, as it was during the first week of the season.

Blade Tidwell, Nolan McLean, and Jonah Tong are just a few of the many pitchers who tossed scoreless outings for the Mets’ affiliates this week. Let’s look at these impressive performances in this week’s Mets Minors Weekly Report.

Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Triple-A Syracuse

The Syracuse Mets played a six-game series against the Worcester Red Sox this past week, with the final two games coming in a doubleheader on Sunday. After losing the first game of the series 9-0, the Mets rallied off four straight wins before dropping the series finale. Still, the Mets won the series four games to two and hold an 8-6 record heading into Tuesday.

Rylan Bannon played in just four games during the series but he made the most of his playing time. In 13 at-bats, Bannon collected five hits, including three home runs and a double, and he also recorded 6 RBIs. Through the first 10 games of the season, Bannon’s OPS eclipses 1.000.

Luke Ritter also had great week against the Red Sox, collecting five hits and a pair of home runs—one in each game of Sunday’s doubleheader. He now has three home runs on the year through his first 36 plate appearances and possesses a .955 OPS through 10 games.

Christian Scott and Dom Hamel, two of the Mets’ top pitching prospects, both tossed a pair of five-inning games in which they struck out ten batters. Scott allowed one run in his outing and Hamel allowed two runs in his. Scott now has 19 strikeouts in just nine innings of work, while Hamel has 13 in 7 2/3 innings.

Joey Lucchesi also had a solid start for the Mets against the Red Sox, going six innings and allowing two runs. Through his first three starts of the season, he possesses a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings.

Double-A Binghamton

The Rumble Ponies and Erie SeaWolves were only able to play a five-game series as rain caused one of the games in the series to be canceled. After dropping the first game, the Rumble Ponies won two in a row putting themselves in position for a series win. However, Erie took the last two games to win the series three games to two to send the Rumble Ponies into Tuesday with a 3-5 record.

Alex Ramírez continues to be a pleasant surprise at the plate for Binghamton, a year after struggling mightily in High-A Brooklyn. In the five-game series against Erie, Ramírez recorded a hit in all but one game and recorded three hits in Sunday’s loss. He also doubled and tripled while driving in two. In eight games this year, he has a fantastic .367 batting average and .994 OPS.

In four games against Erie, first baseman JT Schwartz collected five hits in 14 at-bats, including four hits in four at-bats in the final game of the series. He recorded two doubles and a home run and drove in two. Schwartz had an .819 OPS in 66 games in Binghamton in 2023, and he currently has a .990 OPS including a .448 on-base percentage in seven games this year.

Blade Tidwell made his first start of the season against the SeaWolves and it was a successful outing. In 5 2/3 innings, Tidwell allowed just one unearned run on three hits and two walks. He also struck out five batters. In 34 1/3 innings in Binghamton in 2023, Tidwell recorded a 4.72 ERA so he’s already looking much better in Double-A than he did a season ago.

Wilkin Ramos recorded his second save of the year in his second appearance this year for the Rumble Ponies, pitching a clean ninth inning that saw him allow just one hit with two strikeouts. Through two games, Ramos has thrown four scoreless innings on three hits and no walks.

Hunter Parsons and Nolan Clenney were two more relievers who impressed this past week. Parsons made two appearances for a total of 3 1/3 innings. He allowed one run but struck out six. This comes after he made his 2024 debut in Syracuse, where he struck out four batters in two innings. For Clenney, he made one appearance and struck out three in 1 1/3 scoreless innings. So far this year, he has thrown 2 2/3 scoreless innings across two appearances.

High-A Brooklyn

The first series of the season for the Cyclones couldn’t have been uglier as Brooklyn scored just three runs in a three-game sweep. The second series of the season, however, was more of a success for the Cyclones. After falling behind two games to one, Brooklyn won the final three games of the series, including a doubleheader sweep on Saturday against the Asheville Tourists.

Offense has been hard to come by for Brooklyn in the early going, but some bats have stood out. Nick Lorusso, for example, has been great. The 2023 ninth-round pick out of the University of Maryland had four hits in four games against Asheville, all extra-base hits (two home runs, two doubles). One of his home runs was Sunday’s game-winner as he walked it off. Through seven games this year, he has a .560 slugging percentage and a .905 OPS.

Nolan McLean has also been really impressive with the bat, as he recorded a hit in all three games he batted in. Of those three hits, one was a double and two were home runs. He’s only taken 11 at-bats this year, but his OPS sits at 1.182.

Not only has McLean been great with the bat, he’s also been great on the mound. The two-way player made one start against Asheville and threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Not often will you find a player with an OPS over 1.000 also throwing scoreless outings on the mound (of course, his stats will even out as the season moves along).

Calvin Ziegler had yet another promising outing this past week. He only threw for two innings, but he didn’t allow a hit and struck out four. He did allow a run to come across, though it was unearned. He has now thrown six scoreless innings to start the year with 13 strikeouts and just two walks. Health will be key for him this year, so look for the Mets to take it easy with him to start the year.

Felipe De La Cruz also provided a solid start, too, throwing 4 1/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Out of the bullpen, both Jordany Ventura and Douglas Orellana had appearances of four innings without allowing a run. Ventura struck out seven and allowed three baserunners while Orellana struck out six and walked three but didn’t allow a hit.

Jesus Baez. Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized

Low-A St. Lucie

After losing the first series of the season, St. Lucie dropped their second series of the year as well. In a six-game series with the Jupiter Hammerheads, St. Lucie won two games despite outscoring Jupiter 36-28.

Jesus Baez had a fantastic series for the Mets, playing mostly third base but also playing shortstop for a game. The 19-year-old homered and walked four times while striking out just once in six games. He also recorded three doubles for a total of eight hits during the six games. On the season, Baez has an .807 OPS with five of his ten hits going for extra bases.

Nick Morabito also had a really good series for St. Lucie. He recorded five hits in 20 at-bats, two of which were for extra bases, but he walked seven times while striking out six times. On the year, Morabito has 40 plate appearances and a .450 on-base percentage. His OPS heading into Tuesday sits at .917.

Baez and Morabito have been the only truly solid offensive performers in the early portion of the season, but the series Ronald Hernandez had against Jupiter should not go unnoticed. In 24 plate appearances, Hernandez recorded just two hits but drew nine walks. In the five-game series, he recorded multiple walks three times. His batting average (.250) and slugging percentage (.292) on the year aren’t notable, but he enters Tuesday with a whopping .472 on-base percentage.

If there’s one name you should be keeping an eye on this year in the Mets minor leagues, it might be Jonah Tong. In his start against Jupiter, Tong allowed four baserunners in four scoreless innings and struck out ten. Through two starts, he now has 21 (!) strikeouts in just 8 1/3 innings which seems near impossible. He’s also allowed just three hits in those two starts. He may get the call to Brooklyn soon enough.

Kade Morris also put together a really good start, throwing five scoreless innings and striking out four. Out of the bullpen, St. Lucie got phenomenal performances from Jawilme Ramirez (3 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 5 K), Jack Wenninger (3 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 8 K), and Austin Troesser (4 IP, 0 ER, 6 K) during this series.

Organizational Leaders

Batting

AVG – Alex Ramírez (BNG) – .367

OPS – Ben Gamel (SYR) – 1.033

HR – Ben Gamel (SYR) – 4

SB – Omar De Los Santos (BRK) – 8

Pitching

(Among Qualified Players)

ERA – Jonah Tong (STL), Felipe De La Cruz, Jordany Ventura (BRK) – 0.00

SO – Jonah Tong (STL) – 21

WHIP – Felipe De La Cruz (BRK) – 0.72

Players of the Week

Offense – Rylan Bannon, INF/OF Syracuse

Rylan Bannon is perhaps one of the more overlooked members of the Mets’ farm system. He’s not a top prospect and he’s not a veteran with an accomplished major league track record. The 27-year-old, however, is off to a fantastic start in Syracuse. This past week he hit safely in every game he played in and homered three times while also driving in six.

Bannon currently has an OPS of 1.005 and has been one of the better offensive players on a Syracuse Mets team that has had great offensive performances to start the year.

Luke Ritter, JT Schwartz, and, of course, Alex Ramírez are also deserving of some love here, too. Each of the three had great second weeks of the season and have come out swinging early on.

Pitching – Jonah Tong, P St. Lucie

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better two-start stretch than what Jonah Tong has put together to start this season. 21 strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings alone is absolutely phenomenal, but to also allow just three hits in that same span? Tong could skyrocket up prospect rankings this season if he continues to pitch even remotely close to this level for the rest of the season.

Outside of Tong, there were several other pitchers who had fantastic weeks. Blade Tidwell, Jordany Ventura, and Douglas Orellana are three out of a handful deserving of a shoutout. Christian Scott continued his great start, as well. The Mets have a fantastic bunch of young pitchers in their system, and they were all on display this week.