Ronny Mauricio, Photo by James Farrance
Baseball America has updated its top 100 prospect rankings, and the New York Mets noticeably have fewer players in the prospect rankings. They started the season with seven, and for a few reasons, they are now down to three.
First and foremost, it should be noted Brett Baty and Kodai Senga have graduated from prospect status. There was always the expectation that was going to happen with Senga as he opened the season as the Mets third starter.
In terms of Baty, there were calls for him to be the Opening Day starter at third. However, the Mets would wait a few weeks, and they called up Baty after Eduardo Escobar struggled to start the season.
With Baty and Senga having graduated from prospect status, the Mets remaining on the top 100 rankings are:
7. Francisco Álvarez, C
64. Ronny Mauricio, INF
72. Kevin Parada, C
After the last update, we see Álvarez rose one spot in the rankings. With the Mets designating Tomás Nido for assignment, the Mets intend on Álvarez being on the roster for the remainder of the season. As a result, we will soon see the Mets prospects in the top 100 drop from three to two.
Like Álvarez, Mauricio rose in the rankings. He made a huge jump from 92 to 64. Much of the reason there is his hot start to the season. Through his 56 games, he is hitting .333/.372/.551 with 23 doubles, two triples, eight homers, and 34 RBI. Mauricio left the Syracuse Mets most recent game last week with a sprained ankle.
While Álvarez and Mauricio rose in the rankings, Parada dropped 31 spots. Parada did get off to a slow start to the season, hitting .213/.338/.328 in April for High-A Brooklyn. Since May 1, he has been much improved, hitting .273/.343/.446. While improved, we have not quite seen the power we hoped to see from Parada.
Parada was not the only Mets prospect to fall in the rankings. In fact, outfielder Alex Ramirez and shortstop/outfielder Jett Williams would fall off the rankings altogether.
Ramirez struggled to start the season for High-A Brooklyn. Over the first two months, he only slugged .361, but his recent hot stretch has raised his wRC+ to 108 for the season. The 20-year-old is off to a hot start in June, going 6-for-18 with a double, two homers, and six RBI. He has also walked 14 times in his last 21 games.
Williams has struggled at the plate to hit for average or power, but has walked a ton for Low-A St. Lucie, hitting .215/.407/.331 with five doubles, two triples, two homers, and 17 RBI. Like Ramirez, Williams is currently hot at the plate. Over his last five games, he is 5-for-14 with a triple, homer, and three RBI. He has also drawn six walks which is indicative of the excellent eye he has had at the plate this season. The 19-year-old has mixed in six games in center field this year in addition to 30 games at his customary shortstop position.
If current trends for Ramirez and Williams hold true, we could see them work their way back onto the Baseball America Top 100 rankings. If they don’t, we will see the Mets prospects on these rankings drop from seven to just two.
