The 24th player on BA’s list may be the Mets funniest minor league player on twitter. The Northern Ireland born hurler was a target of intrigue heading into the season, way more than a #24 ranking would suggest. It was his second season in a row receiving a non-roster invite to camp and despite having low velocity numbers, heading into the season he was dominating all over the minors. Like Gerson Bautista (#25), he would make his major league debut this year, leading to his cap being displayed in the hall of fame because of how rare an Irish born player actually is.
BA gave him a grade of 45 with a High risk rating (one of the lower risk ratings given to anyone in the farm system, which speaks to the state of the farm system, I think there are a handful of medium risk and everyone is high, very high or extreme). BA describes him perfectly here, “Conlon depends on command of a fringe-average fastball, plus changeup and plus control…sells and excellent change up with arm speed and deceptive delivery that prevents batters from easily picking up the ball.”
Conlon bounced around with the Mets and Dodgers this season, when he got called up he allowed 3 runs over 3.2 innings in a start and followed that up three weeks later with 4 runs over 2.0 innings. He was then claimed by the Dodgers before finding his wa back to the Mets were he made one outing, a relief appearance where he shut out the Phillies over 2.0 innings. In 2017 the Mets switched him in the minors to be a reliever, it isn’t surprising the Mets switched him back to being a starter because the Mets always seem to botch these things.
Conlon struggled most of the season in Vegas posting a 6.55 ERA over 23 games in 114.0 innings. All of the Mets pitchers struggled in Vegas this year. In this way, despite having completely opposite stuff of Bautista, he is exactly like Bautista.
Conlon, if not cut from the 40 man this year, will need a strong spring training to make his way to Queens, if that doesn’t happen, he’ll probably find his way to Queens eventually anyway due to injuries and lack of quality bullpen pitchers. Conlon is interesting: he’s a finesse pitcher, he’s coming off of the first season of pro-ball where he struggled, he clearly has a positive personality. Here’s hoping he comes back this season strong!
