During Brodie Van Wagenen’s short tenure as the New York Mets‘ general manager, the overall state of the farm system suffered a few hits. It’s a natural thing for contenders to surrender prospects as they look to improve their chances to win it all, but most of the valuable, blue-chip players were dealt away for questionable returns.
The Mets traded Jarred Kelenic, Simeon Woods-Richardson, Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay, and others in the last couple of years, and now, there aren’t too many potential game-changers in the system.
That doesn’t mean that the farm system is useless. Not at all. The New York Mets were able to rank two prospects on ESPN’s top 100 list.
The two Mets that made ESPN’s top 100 MLB prospects list for 2021 were shortstop Ronny Mauricio, at number 61, and catcher Francisco Alvarez, at 82.
Speaking of Alvarez, he is seen as a difference-maker in one of the game’s most important positions, and other teams are asking about their availability while the Mets hold conversations in the trade market.
Keith Law ranked Mets’ prospects higher than ESPN
Keith Law of The Athletic recently released his own top 100 list and included four current members of the Mets: Alvarez (No. 19), Mauricio (No. 32), right-handed pitcher Matt Allan (No. 90) and outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong (No. 94). H also had third baseman Brett Baty among 12 prospects who “just missed” the cut.
ESPN wrote that “it’s easy to imagine Mauricio as another XL shortstop with plus offense when you watch how he moves on the field, but he has plenty of risk to go with that mammoth upside.”
About the Mets’ young catcher, they said that he “still shows above-average defensive skills and arm strength to go with a powerful frame that produces above-average raw power potential and the indicators of above-average contact skills — though it’s still a little early to say that with certainty.”
Kelenic was third and Woods-Richardson 90th.