Desmond Lindsay (Jacob Resnick/MetsMinors)
MiLB.com has begun the final stage in their series of farm system rankings, and the New York Mets farm system came in at 26th of the 30 MLB teams.
Earlier this month, MiLB.com broke it down further, rating the Mets hitting prospects 25th overall, and the Mets collection of pitching prospects 23rd in the game. The Mets collection of talent 21 years of age and under ranked 26th in the game. These assessments all fall in line with the industry consensus.
While the ranking acknowledges the hit to the farm’s status due to the graduation of former top prospects Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith, MiLB.com also recognizes that there are a few names to keep an eye on.
This particular ranking focused on the obvious names, praising David Peterson‘s exceptional control, Andres Gimenez‘s success in fullseason ball at just 18 years old, and Peter Alonso‘s powerful showing last year in the notoriously power-hitter unfriendly Florida State League.
Luis Guillorme and Gavin Cecchini garnered mention as potential MLB-caliber infield depth. While the article keeps it brief and stops there, starting pitcher Anthony Kay is continuing to turn heads as he makes his way back from Tommy John surgery and Desmond Lindsay just needs to finally stay healthy in order to break out in his 21-year-old season. The Mets also have a nice collection of talent percolating in the lower levels, much of it mined out of the baseball hotbeds of Latin America, which will help the system ascend back towards top status.
That being said, the article puts forth the notion that the current collection of minor league talent in the Mets system is the least impressive “in recent memory”. When looking back on rankings from the days of a system loaded with talent like Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Kevin Plawecki, Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, and going even further back, Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler and Jeurys Familia, that assessment seems very warranted. But even more important than how highly the industry views these ballplayers when they are still just minor leaguers, is how many of these highly-touted prospects become good players at the MLB level.
The Mets system could also see a boost this year after they signed four of the top 50 International Free Agents from the 2017 class according to Baseball America and have the sixth overall pick in the upcoming June draft.
While the book may be still be much unwritten on some of these aforementioned names, it is just as undeniable as the current state of the Mets farm, that the Mets farm system has acquitted itself quite well in recent memory in bringing great talent to the big leagues.
