Friday, March 15, 2024 • 3:10 PM
Clover Field • Port St Lucie, FL
RHP Jackson Rutledge (0-0, -.–) vs. RHP Dom Hamel (0-0, -.–)
Metsmerized Online
One of the best parts of spring training is seeing highly touted prospects take the field in their future threads. Those kinds of talents get into spring training games frequently, but generally there are only a few on the field at a time while getting little time to shine as they are mixed in with veterans and non-roster invitees. If you are a fan of a team and don’t live near your team’s affiliate clubs, you have to hope you are tuning into a spring training game at the exact right moment to see top prospects play.
Major League Baseball recognized that dilemma and wanted to make it easier to see the sport’s future stars. Thus, it debuted the Spring Breakout Showcase this year. This weekend, every team plays at least one Breakout Showcase game. The rosters are made up of all of the best prospects.
The Mets system is loaded with top prospects that are on today’s roster. There are seven hitters on the roster who the Mets acquired in trades last season. One of the most exciting pitching prospects, Dom Hamel, is starting the game. The future is bright and the future is literally now on the diamond for the New York Mets.
Mets Lineup
- Jett Williams CF
- Drew Gilbert RF
- Luisangel Acuña SS
- Ryan Clifford 1B
- Kevin Parada C
- Alex Ramírez LF
- Colin Houck DH
- Jesus Baez 3B
- Marco Vargas 2B
Opposing Lineup
- Dylan Crews CF
- James Wood RF
- Brady House 3B
- Yohandy Morales 1B
- Drew Millas C
- Trey Lipscomb
- Andrew Pinckney LF
- TJ White DH
- Darren Baker 2B
Three Things To Watch For
- Hitters acquired in trades last season. Luisangel Acuña (Max Scherzer), Ryan Clifford & Drew Gilbert (Justin Verlander), Ronald Hernandez & Marco Vargas (David Robertson) and Jeremy Rodriquez (Tommy Pham) are all on the roster today. Acuña and Gilbert have flown to the top of the Mets top prospects list. Jeremy Rodriguez landed on Fan Graphs Top 101 list as a 17-year-old. This group of hitters are electric and will play all over the Mets system this year, with a few of them having a chance to make their major league debuts in 2024. Today only though they are all on the same roster.
- Dom Hamel. Hamel is part of a group of top pitching prospects for the Mets (Christian Scott, Mike Vasil) who could debut at some point in 2024 to bolster the Mets 2024 rotation. In 124 innings last season Hamel had a 3.85 ERA and a 1.266 WHIP. In 2022 he struck out 145 batters over 119 innings split between the St. Lucie Mets and Brooklyn on his way to winning the Mets Organization Pitcher of the Year.
- Did you know the Mets have a two-way player? Nolan McLean was drafted by the Mets last year in the third round out of Oklahoma State University. After selecting McLean, the Mets gave him an opportunity to pursue being a two-way player in their system. As a hitter, he got into eight games and went 2-for-16 with a homer while working seven walks. As a pitcher, he allowed one hit and one run over two games and 3 1/3 innings of work. Now a year removed from college baseball, we expect Nolan to get a lot more playing time in minor league games.
