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.
Most of Baseball America’s pre-2019 write up about Jordan Humphreys was about injuries which ended up as an interesting back drop to how his 2019 season went. After being drafted, Jordan was noted for his control. In 2017 he was dominating in Columbia with a 1.42 ERA over 11 starts and 70.0 innings with a 0.72 ERA before he needed Tommy John. He then missed the rest of 2017 and 2018.
Baseball America noted that he could rise back up through the Mets system quickly if he came back strong from injury. But that rise had to wait – he had another surgery in the off-season before 2019 which pushed his debut back until July with the Gulf Coast Rookie team. Basically he spent 2019 in extended spring training.
But at the end of the season a lot of good things happened. He dominated in 4 outings, 11.2 innings, in the Arizona Fall League with a 0.77 ERA and a 1.029 WHIP. He was also added to the 40-man roster.
Depending on inning control this year, we’ll probably see him quite a bit at the start of Spring Training while the Mets figure out where to put him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets shut down at some point in the season as he tries to get his arm strength back (actually I’ll be more surprised if this doesn’t happen). He’s still young, the Mets drafted him in 2015 at 19 years old and while injuries have allowed his stock in the system to slide a bit, the Mets have traded most of their older pitching talent away.
We are rooting for you in 2020 Jordan!
