Wally Backman is now with the Mets and he had so much to say on Friday about a number of our top prospects which he broke down for Adam Rubin of ESPN New York.
“I’ll say what you’ve probably heard a million times: He’s still very, very young. He just turned 22 the last week of the season. Stuff-wise he’s probably second to nobody, but he has a lot to learn mentally. He’s got a very good changeup. And his breaking ball is very good. All the pitches are there. It’s just learning how to use those pitches in the right situations. The tempo of the game, he needs to speed it up. And at times he’ll show good tempo. But, again, it all boils down to consistency. And he’s not consistent enough.”
“This was the first real good year that he had, I think, offensively. I know he was a high pick, but he really showed he can handle the bat. He’s not a home run guy. He’s a guy that slaps the ball around. He’s a gap-to-gap guy. I was impressed with the way he played shortstop. But he’s another kid that probably needs a little bit of seasoning. You know, one good year doesn’t make you an All-Star. So this was really his first good year.”
“I’m not surprised with deGrom. I really believed that he was a guy that was going to be a dominant type of pitcher — the way he competes, his stuff. He’s got swing-and-miss stuff. I didn’t want to lose him as fast as I lost him. I knew that it was the right move. He’s probably pitched better than a lot of people expected, but I’ve seen a lot of the things in him that were going to make him good. For him to make that transition as fast as he did, it probably surprised a lot of people.”
Read what else Backman had to say about Kevin Plawecki, Wilmer Flores and Matthew Bowman on ESPN New York
