The Mets invited three big starting pitching prospects to camp this year: Dominic Hamel, Christian Scott and Mike Vasil. Similar to Scott, Vasil is another pitcher who saw his stock rise considerably last season. At the end of the 2022 season he was listed as the #21 prospect in the Mets system by MLB Pipeline. At the end of last season he was listed as the #9 prospect. In the 2024 pre-season Mets prospect rankings by the Athletic, Vasil is #10. Both organizations predict that he’s going to make his major league debut at some point this season.
Mike Vasil is mostly a fastball-cutter pitcher. His fastball sits in the low-90’s and in addition to the cutter he mixes in a curveball and changeup. One of the more interesting notes from MLB Pipeline is that the Mets actually got rid of one of his pitches after drafting him. He used to throw a two-seam fastball that the Mets worked out of his arsenal.
The Mets drafted Vasil in the 8th round back in 2021 and he made a few starts totaling only seven innings in his first year with the Mets (which is fairly normal for pitchers coming out of a full season in college). Vasil quickly turned heads in 2022, posting a 2.19 ERA over 37 innings in nine games in St. Lucie earning a promotion to Brooklyn. He didn’t dominate in Brooklyn as indicated by a 5.67 ERA over 33 innings. Vasil did get better at striking players out in Brooklyn though, jumping from a 9.5 K/9 to an 11.9 K/9. The difference was homers. He only gave up one homer with St. Lucie but three in less innings in Brooklyn.
The Mets saw enough positive with Vasil in Brooklyn last year to move up him to Binghamton last year and he looked great over ten starts (51 innings) with a 3.71 ERA. Homers became a problem again as he allowed eight, which was a 1.4 HR/9 clip, or almost double the rate he had in Brooklyn. But he was able to keep his strike numbers up. Vasil earned a promotion to Syracuse to finish off the season. Similar to 2022, his performance took a step back, but there was still a lot to like. His ERA jumped to 5.30, mostly due to a jump in walks (1.4 BB/9 to 4.7) but his strikeout and homer numbers didn’t change.
If the pattern holds, then Vasil should put up great numbers in Syracuse this year, and put up below average numbers as a Met after a late season call-up. Then he dominates in 2025! This is mostly a joke, but it has been fascinating watching Vasil repeat the same performance pattern the last two seasons. To comeback stronger each year shows he’s doing something in the off-season to get better.
At some point this year the Mets will need another starter. There’s going to essentially be an open competition all season between Hamel, Scott and Vasil for who will be first to get that call. This spring we are going to be looking to see if Vasil keeps the ball in the ballpark and keeps his walk numbers down, as those were the two knocks on his game at the end of last season.
