This is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.
The Mets traded two interesting prospects for J.D. Davis last year: Ross Adolph and Luis Santana (#13 on this list). A week later they signed Jed Lowrie and it felt like the Mets gave up two players that could make the farm system interesting, for nothing. But Jed Lowrie essentially never played and J.D. Davis had a break out year. So it looks like things went well for the Mets on this trade.
Ross Adolph delivered an initially outcry of angst from Mets fans when he was traded because of his pro-debut season in 2018. The Mets drafted him in the 12th round but as BA notes, he ended up ranking third in the NYPL in slugging, .509, and OPS, .857. Difficult to do because the Cyclones play in a tough park for left handed power. He hit 7 homers on the road and 13 triples. He is also “the system’s best defensive outfielder thanks to all-out abandon, plus athleticism and above-average range in center field”. In a system lacking true defensive outfielders (and a system that just traded Kelenic) this felt like a loss. BA concludes with “if he can develop an average bat with average power, he could have a long career as an extra outfielder or possible starter.”
2019 (Low A/HighA): 460 PA, 382 AB, 7 HR, .228/.357/.366, .723 OPS
While his homer power dipped in his first full season of pro-ball he continued to put up a high on base percentage and hit enough doubles and triples to still put up an above 700 OPS at 22 years old. Right now it looks like he is more towards a career of an extra outfielder, and this is contingent at what he does at the next level. I don’t know enough about the Astros system to make a prediction as to where he could go.
A lot of the J.D. Davis trade depends on Luis Santana, but if Ross Adolph only becomes a defensive minded extra outfield bat, then the Mets came out of the deal as winners. We’ll continue this conversation in 5 days when we get to Santana.
