One of the best parts of spring training is seeing highly touted prospects take the field in their future threads. Prospects get into spring training games frequently, but generally there are only a few on the field at a time, they are mixed in with veterans on non-roster invitations and they get limited time in the game. If you are fan of a team and don’t live near your team’s affiliate clubs, you have to hope you are tuning into a spring training game at exact right moment to see top prospects play.
Major League Baseball wanted to make it easier to see the top prospects and debuted the Spring Breakout Showcase this year. This weekend every team is playing at least one Breakout Showcase game. Rosters are made up of all of the best prospects.
The Mets system is loaded with top prospects that are today’s roster. There are seven hitters on the roster who the Mets acquired in trades last season. One of the most exciting pitching prospects, Dom Hamel, is starting the game. The future is bright and the future is literally now on the diamond for the New York Mets.
Three Things To Watch For:
- Hitters acquired in trades last season. Luisangel Acuña (Max Scherzer) , Ryan Clifford, Drew Gilbert (Justin Verlander), Ronald Hernandez, Marco Vargas (David Robertson) and Jeremy Rodriquez (Tommy Pham) are all on the roster today. Acuña and Gilbert have flown to the top of the Mets top prospects list. Jeremy Rodriguez landed on Fan Graphs Top 101 list as a 17-year-old. This group of hitters are electric and will play all over the Mets system this year, with a few of them having a chance to make their major league debuts in 2024. Today only though they are all on the same roster.
- Dom Hamel. Hamel is part of a group of top pitching prospects for the Mets (Christian Scott, Mike Vasil) who could debut at some point in 2024 to bolster the Mets 2024 rotation. In 124 innings last season Hamel had a 3.85 ERA and a 1.266 WHIP. In 2022 he struck out 145 batters over 119 innings split between the St. Lucie Mets and Brooklyn on his way to winning the Mets Organization Pitcher of the Year.
- Did you know the Mets have a two-way player? Nolan McLean was drafted by the Mets last year in the third round out of Oklahoma State University. After drafting McLean last year the Mets gave him an opportunity to pursue being a two-way player in their system. As a hitter he got into eight games going 2-for-16 with a homer while working seven walks. As a pitcher he allowed one hit and one run over two games and 3 1/3 innings of work. Now a year removed from college baseball, we expect Nolan to get a lot more playing time in minor league games.
Let’s Go Mets!
