The New York Mets are clearly a win-now team, evidenced by the fact they splurged $130 million on a 37-year-old pitcher; which is Max Scherzer. They also handed a $341 million contract before last season, to Francisco Lindor, and sacrificed two young shortstops and two additional prospects to bring him and pitcher Carlos Carrasco from Cleveland.
But they also want to start being more careful with their prospects: developing them, given them the best tools to succeed, and holding on to most of the good ones. In general, taking better care of their young assets, because they want to be sustainable.
The Mets’ system may not be so deep, but there are potential game-changing talents, as Baseball Prospectus’ top 101 prospects list suggest. There are three members of the organization listed by the famous publication, two of which are inside the top 15.
BP’s list came a day after Baseball America published its top 100 prospects. That list also has three Mets, but BP is higher on New York’s group.
The Mets have some impressive talent at the top
Catcher Francisco Alvarez ranked number 10 (13 in Baseball America), and third baseman Brett Baty was 13th, whereas he was placed 39th in BA’s group.
Another top Mets prospect, shortstop Ronny Mauricio, is 51st in BP and 92nd in BA. Generally speaking, BP likes New York’s young players more than other publications and evaluators.
The Mets have traded lots of prospects in the past few years (Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Josh Wolf, and Isaiah Green are some of them) but so far, they have been extremely reluctant to include Alvarez, Baty, or Mauricio in any deal, and teams have asked for them countless times.
Alvarez and Mauricio are expected to spend most of the 2022 campaign in Double-A, which is where Baty will start (with a Triple-A promotion in mind, eventually).