John Sickels of Minor League Ball ranked the top twenty Mets prospects yesterday. While the system isn’t quite as strong after calling up top prospects like Michael Conforto and Noah Syndergaard, the Mets still have a solid amount of quality and depth in the farm and a lot of exciting players on the way.
Here is how Sickels stacks up the top ten:
- Steven Matz, LHP – A great story, hometown boy who overcame injuries, major league ready. Only question really is durability but most recent injury was not arm-related.
- Dominic Smith, 1B – Strong feel for hitting with good defensive reviews, main doubt remains power projection but has made some progress. Still draws James Loney comps.
- Amed Rosario, SS – Bat is not very good right now but he is quite young, glove looks very strong, will need to boost OBP skills and/or increase power but young enough for that to happen.
- Gavin Cecchini, SS – Bat is improving but defense has stagnated and there’s some talk now he may have to switch to second base. Interesting how his reputation has changed from good-field-no-hit to good-hit-?-field over the last two years.
- Brandon Nimmo, OF – Power is not developing but he gets on base. Looking more and more like a platoon/role player but that can still have value.
- Wuilmer Becerra, OF – Solid right field tool set and growing into his power, I think he is a breakout candidate for 2016.
- Desmond Lindsay, OF – Hit .263/.364/.386 in 114 at-bats between rookie ball and New York-Penn League. High-ceiling player with raw power, speed, strong overall tools, another right field candidate who will need time to develop but could be a multi-category regular.
- Marcos Molina, RHP – Missed much of 2015 with injuries, posted 4.57 ERA with 36/11 K/BB in 41 innings in High-A. Second-best pitching arm in the system behind Matz but questions about durability, long-term role preclude a higher grade at this time.
- Milton Ramos, SS – Third round pick in 2014, superior defensive ability at shortstop and hit for average this year, lacks distance power, part of Mets focus to stay strong up the middle with gloves.
- Luis Carpio, SS – Another defense-oriented player though likely to wind up at second base eventually. Another contact hitter lacking present power but young enough to get better.
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The most surprising part of Sickles analysis was saying that Nimmo is looking more and more like a platoon player. Nimmo batted .175 against lefties in Triple-A Las Vegas in 27 at-bats and only had a .288 slugging percentage against them in 59 at-bats in Double-A Binghamton. For a player the Mets selected in the first round of the draft, if Nimmo becomes a part time player it will certainly be a huge disappointment.
However, there was a lot of exciting news in this report, especially about Becerra who Sickels believes will be a breakout player in 2016. He also spoke highly about Lindsay’s immense upside, and it’s great to see Smith, Cecchini and Rosario continuing to make progress.
Two players that I was surprised didn’t make the cut for the top 20 were Gabriel Ynoa and Robert Gsellman, who were included as players of note. Ynoa posted a 3.90 ERA in 152 innings for Double-A Binghamton and walked just 31 batters. Meanwhile, Gsellman had a breakout season in 2015 as he dominated Single-A St.Lucie with a 1.76 ERA and continued to thrive in Double-A with a 3.51 ERA in 92 innings.
Despite some pessimistic appraisals by Sickels, many of which were arguable in my estimation, this still shows how deep the farm system still is even after all the pieces we dealt in all those deadline deals this season. It looks like this new wave of prospects are an exciting group that will provide he Mets with a solid foundation for years to come.
