Francisco Alvarez/Photo by Ed Delany, MMO
In ranking all of the farm systems, Baseball America has rated the Mets 25th putting them in the bottom six in the league. This is the fourth straight year the Mets have dropped in these rankings. If you want a more optimistic view, this is up three spots from where the Mets are at the 2019 midseason rankings.
The Mets drop in these rankings are multi-faceted. Since 2015, we have seen players like Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, Seth Lugo, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo, Amed Rosario, and Noah Syndergaard have gone from prospects to impactful Major Leaugers. However, that is just part of the problem.
Since taking over as the General Manager, Brodie Van Wagenen has traded away a number of propsects. That includes three first round draft picks in Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay, and Jarred Kelenic. In addition to this trio, Simeon Woods Richardson is another prospect who has appeared on top 100 prospect rankings.
According to Baseball America with those promotions and trades, the only top 100 prospects remaining in the Mets system are Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Alvarez. Overall, the Mets are viewed as a system “long on upside but short on proximity or depth.”
Still, there’s hope for the Mets system. In addition to Mauricio and Alvarez, Baseball America notes Brett Baty, Josh Wolf, and Matthew Allan could “pay off big.”
Ultimately, the Mets have interesting and high upside prospects, but they are not going to be in a position to help the Mets in the near future. As a result, the Major League team is going to have to mostly rely on the players who are already there. If the Mets want to improve that roster, they may have to trade some of these interesting prospects delivering yet another blow to the farm system.
This is not an all too different situation than the Phillies and Nationals find themselves. Those teams are ranked by Baseball America as having the 24th and 26th systems respectively. The key difference with those teams is they have players who are near Major Leauge ready who could help them in 2020.
