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Deep, But Not Profound

By Ari Berkowitz

February 24, 2017 5 Comments

michael conforto

To be completely honest, I have no idea if anything like this has happened before, but the Mets AAA affiliate, the Las Vegas 51’s, stand to start the season with six current or former Top 100 Prospects in their lineup.

Barring the increasingly unlikely scenario of trading a Major League outfielder, or someone getting hurt; Kevin Plawecki, Dominic Smith, Gavin Cecchini, Amed Rosario, Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo are slated to play everyday for the 51s. This unprecedented amount of talent isn’t in serious consideration for Major League spots to start the 2017 season.

They should be joined on the Las Vegas squad by T.J. Rivera, Matt Reynolds and Ty Kelly with guys like Phillip Evans, Travis Taijeron, Victor Cruzado, Xorge Carrillo, L.J. Mazzilli and Jeff McNeil nipping at their heels. These players project as bench players or depth pieces because of their weaknesses, though the traits they possess make them quite suitable for part time roles. Whether that’s Cruzado’s defense and switch hitting or Taijeron’s ability to mash left-handed pitching, the Mets wealth of depth pieces will facilitate the fitting of round pegs into round holes.

The Mets have had to rely on marginal players at the Major League level for too long.  Just last season the Mets had Eric Campbell, James Loney and others receive extensive playing time, exposing their weaknesses. We have watched the likes of Wilson Valdez, Collin Cowgill, Danny Muno and Omar Quintanillas put into situations which proved to be too big for their britches all due to a debilitating lack of depth.

Interestingly enough, the Mets loaded up on college position players early on in the past draft, a drastic departure from their recent history. If your team is drafting the best player available something of this ilk could happen based solely on random variation, yet more engaged analysts considered this a concerted effort by the Mets to save bonus pool money for later rounds.

I would contend, while not disagreeing with either theory per se, that the basic need to keep the minor league depth chart full was as much of a consideration.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that what separates the Mets front office from others is their perception of the big picture. They are cognizant of the 40-man roster, creating Major League depth and having trade surplus all while excelling at player development.

In other words, this delicate balance has been reached by having a long-term plan manifest over a number of years. It is important to consider the value of drafting both high floor, low ceiling players and vice versa in order to appropriately distribute starters, role player and depth pieces at each level.

Yet again, Sandy Alderson’s crew has taught us how your farm system can help you in every possible way down to a science.

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