Photo by Allen Greene Photography
Baseball America has been running their series that list the Top 20 Prospects for each league in the minors and the Mets had two players in the lower levels stand out this year.
Important to note that these lists are made after talking to managers in each league.
Infielder Mark Vientos was ranked as the No. 10 prospect in the Gulf Coast League. The Mets second round pick in the 2017 draft played the entire season at just 17-years-old (turns 18 in December) and held his own by slashing .259/.316/.397 in the GCL.
The shortstop (for now, most believe he slides to third) was promoted to the Kingsport Mets of Appalachian League for the last week of the season. In four games for Kingsport, he went 5 for 17 with two doubles and two RBI.
Vientos played 23 games at shortstop this year and 14 at third. Limited range will likely move him to third base and as soon as next season.
Leading into the draft, Vientos was billed as one of the top prep bats available and ranked as the No. 40 prospect of the draft according to Baseball America.
The other low level Mets prospect to make a BA list was catcher Juan Uriarte as the No. 16 prospect in the Appalachian League. The 20-year-old catcher had a breakout offensive season slashing .305/.372/.455 with a career-high 13 doubles, five home runs and 36 RBI.
Uriarte has already shown good knowledge of the strike zone and certainly improved his overall power in 2017. On the defensive side, Uriarte is a thought of as a strong overall defender that has a plus arm.
We have Vientos currently ranked as our No. 8 prospect at MMN while Uriarte comes in as our No. 30 prospect in the Mets system.
Earlier in their rankings, BA had shortstop Andres Gimenez as the No. 7 prospect in the South Atlantic League, Amed Rosario No. 1 in the PCL and Dominic Smith No. 6 in the PCL.
