Photo Credit: Allen Greene Photography
Mets Minors has learned that lefty sensation Thomas Szapucki will not make another start this season because of back stiffness. The 20-year old prospect hadn’t pitched since August 12th and the Brooklyn Cyclones decided with less than two weeks left in the season it was better to be caution.
The Mets selected Szapucki with their 5th round pick in the 2015 draft and he had a breakout season this year striking out 86 batters in 52 innings. Not only did he impress the Mets but had teams asking about him during trade talks around the deadline.
Szapucki finishes the 2016 season going 4-3 with a 1.38 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and held opponents to a .145 average between the Cyclones and the Kingsport Mets. He had five games with double digit strikeouts including his last three starts of the year for the Cyclones which set a new team record. 
Smart move. Nothing else to prove this year anyway. Hope to see him in Queens in 2-3 years.
How hard does he throw? I saw a report that had his fastball up to 98 mph??? His draft report had him at 92-94…. That would be a nice increase in 1 year
Highest I’ve seen is 97 while sitting in the 94/95 range. They cleaned up some of his mechanics which has been a huge reason for his breakout season.
Hey Michael,
As I do not follow other team’s MiLB players very much, I don’t have much of a baseline to compare some of the Mets’ prospects that I am truly excited about.
Obviously, there are many ways to classify a prospect. There are low ceiling/high floor guys who are more polished and get the most out of their tools, but their tools are somewhat limited.
There are virtual tool sheds, who have all the raw talent in the world, but so many things to work on, there are definite questions about their ability to ever make it.
And then there are the tool shed type of players who are young, and therefore somewhat raw, but who just have a feel to them that as long as they stay healthy and hungry have a great chance of developing into solid MLB talent.
To me, in addition to Rosario and Smith, it feels like we have a handful of others who fit the last category which seems like more than usual. Guys like Dunn, Szapucki, Lindsay and Molina for instance. And a few others that by this time next year could easily fit in that category – guys like Gimenez, Beccera and Alonzo. I don’t mean to imply that others are not legit prospects, or that the guys listed don’t have things to improve, but there seems to be something different about them.
I still believe with more seasoning, guys like Nimmo, Cecchini and Gsellman could all be really solid players in the upper minors. And that guys like Nido, Carpio, Kay, Guillorme, Sanchez, Flexen, Church, Gonzalez and Thompson likewise can develop into top prospects, but with more question marks than the others.
Curious what you think?
Going to just interject myself here, and say BINGO.
If every player were the same then grading every prospect would be easy.
There are the tool shed guys, Ivan Wilson, who everyone can dream on. Everything singularly is plus across the board, but sometimes they cant put it together.
There is the Champ Stuarts who have one plus plus tool and that can generally carry them to the majors (Looking at you EY2)
There is the guys whose sum is greater then the parts Cecchini fits in this category for me. The risk is minimized by their very realistic chances of reaching the major leagues.
When looking at those plus tools guys that are some distance away (SS and below) you have to view them as greater risk. Risk of not reaching that potential.
Often forgotten when discussing prospects is the fact that only about 10% of all minor league players ever reach the majors. Earlier this season I read or heard the Mets were the original organization for the second most players in MLB (unfortunately I forget the exacts, it was something like 36 players).