Things To Watch in Mets 2022 Minor League Season

For the first time in 2022 we have a full slate of Mets minor league baseball scheduled to take place on Friday. The Triple-A Syracuse Mets started early this season, but have lost their first two games of the year.

The Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies, High-A Brooklyn Cyclones, and Low-A St. Lucie Mets play their season openers on Friday. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few things you should be watching for in the Mets 2022 minor league season.

Top Prospects 

As we move through this article we will talk about a lot of players in the Mets farm system, but fans will certainly be the most focused on the Mets top prospects. Well, they should definitely be watching the Rumble Ponies then. The Mets Double-A affiliate has the Mets top three prospects in catcher Francisco Alvarez, third baseman Brett Baty, and shortstop Ronny Mauricio. All three of them are consensus top 100 prospects in baseball as well.

Here’s where you the Mets top 15 prospects will start the 2022 season:

1. Catcher Francisco Álvarez,  Double-A Binghamton
2. Third baseman Brett Baty,  Double-A Binghamton
3. Shortstop Ronny Mauricio, Double-A Binghamton
4. Third Baseman Mark Vientos, Triple-A Syracuse
5. Right-hander Matt Allan, Injured List
6. Outfielder Khalil Lee, Triple-A Syracuse
7. Outfielder Alex Ramirez, Low-A St. Lucie
8. Right-hander Dominic Hamel, Low-A St. Lucie
9. Right-hander Calvin Ziegler, Low-A St. Lucie
10. Right-hander Jose Butto, Double-A Binghamton
11. Right-hander Joel Diaz, Extended Spring
12. Outfielder Nick Plummer, MLB Taxi Squad
13. Outfielder Jake Mangum, Double-A
14. Outfielder Carlos Cortes, Triple-A
15. Third/Outfield Jaylen Palmer, High-A Brooklyn

You can check out where MMN’s top 30 prospects will start the season over at Mets Minors.

Outfielders Simón Juan and Willy Fañas were the Mets top two international free agent signings for the period that started in January. Juan was given a $1.9 million bonus and Fañas got a 1.5 million bonus. Neither of them will start 2022 on a stateside full season affiliate.

The 2021 Draftees 

The Mets made a mistake when they didn’t have a backup option in the 2021 draft  for right-hander Kumar Rocker and they were unable to sign him, thus leaving lots of bonus allotment money on the table. The Mets do get the No. 11 pick in the upcoming draft for not being unable to come to terms with Rocker. That aside, the Mets (and scouts from other teams) are pretty excited about the arms they were able to draft and sign last year.

Enter the team you want to watch this season if you’re looking to follow the top arms in the Mets system: the Low-A St. Lucie Mets. St. Lucie will feature most of the arms they drafted last year including the aforementioned second rounder Ziegler, third rounder Hamel, sixth rounder Carson Seymour, eighth rounder Mike Vasil, ninth rounder Levi David, and 10th rounder Keyshawn Askew are all expected to pitch in St. Lucie at some point this season.

Fifth rounder Christian Scott won’t start the season with an affiliate, but has looked great since joining the Mets with a fastball up to 96 and a plus slider.

Askew, a left-hander that has been in the mid-90s during short stints with the Mets, will start on Opening Day with 2021 17th rounder Nick Zwack piggybacking off him. He will be followed by the impressive Vasil on Saturday and then the Mets top pick from the 2021 draft, Ziegler, will make his pro debut on Sunday.

The top two position players they took in the 2021 draft, fourth rounder JT Schwartz and seventh round Kevin Kendall, will both start the season in High-A Brooklyn.

Under the Radar

There’s players every year in the lower levels who improve enough to jump onto the top 30 list or move up it significantly. To give you multiple players to watch I’m going to chose two position players, a starter, and a reliever.

Outfielder Stanley Consuegra isn’t on any top 30s right now (will be when I update mine), but he was one of the best players the Mets had in spring camp. Consuegra showed off huge power this spring and has a big-time arm that probably lands him in right field. He’s always ranked as a top exit velocity guy in the Mets minors, though he has struggled to stay healthy and only has 20 pro games since 2019. Consuegra will start in Low-A St. Lucie

Shortstop Wilmer Reyes is another player who is right on the edge of the Mets top 30 prospect group, though he could take a sizeable jump if he stayed healthy this season. Reyes is a legitimate defensive shortstop that has played seven different positions, yeah he’s a good athlete. This spring he’s showed off his power at the plate and turned in one of the best camps.

A knee injury limited him to 16 games last year and he’s already 24, so it will be a big season for him. Reyes posted a .791 OPS in 2019 and thejn followed it up with a .892 OPS in 16 games last year, Reyes will start in High-A Brooklyn mostly because of the stacked infield for Binghamton.

Right-hander Cole Gordon is a player that comes to mind when I think about arms in the Mets farm system could breakout with an adjustment here or there. First off, Gordon had one of the most dominant stretches in minor league baseball last year when he held opponents to a .251 OPS and zero runs in his last five starts of the season in Double-A.

Gordon has a fastball in he low-90s that he uses very well in the upper quadrants of the strike zone. His best secondary is a curveball in the 78-82 mph range that generates a ton of swing and misses. Late in the season, Gordon was perfecting the usage of his fastball up in the zone and his curve below the strike zone for whiffs. What impressed me the most during Gordon’s streak was the command of both of those pitches, he could put them wherever he wanted in all counts.

The dude has the perfect build for a pitcher at 6’5” and 225 pounds, and he has the bulldog mentality on the mound too. Should also note that Gordon is late in his pitching development because he didn’t make the full switch from hitter to pitcher until 2018.

One reliever that has taken big steps already this offseason is right-hander Brendan Hardy. The Mets 31st round pick from 2018 has a 8.05 career ERA and has walked 77 batters in 69 innings. But, he’s shown improved fastball velocity up to 97 mph and a tighter slider that’s been collecting tons of whiffs this spring. Along with those changes, has come a boost in confidence on the mound as well.

2022 Big League Debut?

The Mets had seven players make there major league debut in 2021 with a mixture of prospects and players that were added on minor league deals. Let’s look at seven players I believe will debut in 2022.

• Outfielder Nick Plummer – Might me the most obvious of the group because he’s on the 40-man roster and currently on the Mets taxi squad.
• Outfielder Jake Mangum – Not on the 40, but his defense is already big league ready and his speed is an asset.
• Third baseman Mark Vientos – Being on the 40 helps, but his bat is also close to big league ready and the DH slot could help.
• Right-handed reliever Colin Holderman – Fastball up to 99, and good slider at times. Command still needs improvement.
• Right-handed reliever Eric Orze – Good fastball/splitter combo, but his control was not good in spring.
• Left-handed starter Josh Walker – One of the top lefty pitchers that will be in Triple-A, and you always need a lefty.
• Utility Cody Bohanek – You always need a guy that can play every where, last season it was Jake Hager that made his debut in the same fashion.

Bonus: Right-handed starter Connor Grey will start the season in the Triple-A Syracuse rotation after starting last season in the Chicago Dogs rotation in the American Association.

Names to Learn (And Wait On)

Right-handed pitching prospect Joel Diaz went from an almost completely unknown to start last season to a top 15 (No. 8 by BA and No. 13 by us) prospect in the Mets system. The 18-year-old posted a 0.54 ERA in 50 innings in the Dominican Summer League last year with a fastball hitting the mid-90s and an impressive curveball.

Here’s a few players you might not have heard about yet, but you likely will at some point in 2022.

• Catcher Vincent Perozo – The 19-year-old that was tops among the exit velo leaderboards for the Mets this spring.
• Righty Franklin Sanchez – The 21-year-old relief prospect that has been around 100 mph in camp. Will start 2022 in PSL.
• Lefty Luis Rodriguez – The 19-year-old made it to Low-A in his pro debut last year, showing off 96/97 fastball.
• Lefty Javier Atencio – The 20-year-old was one of the top pitchers in DSL with 14.3 K/9 and 2.44 ERA.
• Outfielder Carlos Dominguez – He led the Mets DSL hitters with 10 home runs in 46 games last year. Will start with St. Lucie in 2022.
• Infielder Kevin Villavicencio – The 18-year-old shortstop was Mets DSL hitter of the year in 2021.

Miscellaneous Info

The Mets now have a director of minor league analytics and will have an analyst with each affiliate this season. The Mets continue to build one of the biggest analytical departments in baseball.

Mets created a position called the director of baseball development that Bryan Hayes will occupy for 2022. Hayes previously spent time as the assistant director of amateur and international scouting, and has been in the Mets organization for 12 years. Hayes told me part of the his job will be helping the organization not only develop young players, but make sure they’re instilled with the tradition of winning.  He will be on the Get Metsmerized Podcast in the coming days.

Starting on Friday night you can watch all four of the Mets minor league affiliates on MiLB tv.