The Mets minor league system is now among the deepest in the majors. The Pirates have more “blue chip” types at the top for now, which makes a difference for most analysts. The Mets on the other hand, only have two “blue chips” in Noah Syndergaard & Travis d’Arnaud with Rafael Montero not having reached that status with the consensus yet (wrongfully so).

But if one of Dominic Smith, Brandon Nimmo, Dilson Herrera or Amed Rosario takes a major step forward in 2014, Syndergaard remains rookie eligible, and a couple of young arms really step up (say, from group of Steven Matz, Michael Fulmer, Gabriel Ynoa, Chris Flexen, Robert Whalen, etc.), the Mets system may well be Top 5 in the game next winter. For now, it’s probably No.10 +/- range.

Here is a link to John Sickels’ Top 20 Mets Prospects, entering 2009, exactly five years ago.

The biggest difference between our system then and our system now is that entering 2009 the Mets had only five prospects who Sickels considered as better than C+, while the Mets entering 2014 have 13 (!) prospects who Sickels considers as better than C+.

Seeing is believing…

With the Marlins having graduated their top two prospects Jose Fernandez and Christian Yelich, the Mets now have the best minor league system in the NL East.

Though the Nationals, Marlins and Braves may have better high-end young talent on their major league roster right now, they’ll all have problems trying to retain those players beyond 2015.

The most positive aspect of the Mets system is its depth, especially in terms of power arms. To give you an example, 5 or 10 or 15 years ago, Jack Leathersich and Jeff Walters both would have been in the mid to back end of our Top 10 Mets prospects. Today, they are borderline Top 20s.

This system has come a long way.

(Photo: The Star-Ledger-USA TODAY Sports)