Francisco Alvarez, Photo by Ed Delany of MMN
The Mets minor league season kicked off last week with most of the Mets top prospects in action. Let’s take a look at how some of them performed.
Week In Review
All four Mets affiliates kicked off their 2022 campaigns this past week. Only one of their affiliates finished over .500 last season, St. Lucie at 60-55, as all four teams work towards more success this time around.
Triple-A Syracuse is off to a rough start to their season at 1-4. According to team manager Kevin Boles, Khalil Lee has missed the first four games of their season with travel issues. Offensively, the team is struggling. They’ve been missing Lee, Nick Plummer being on the MLB practice squad, and Travis Jankowski being promoted to the Opening Day roster. Only Travis Blankenhorn and Daniel Palka own an OPS over .750 in the first five games.
Double-A Binghamton is off to a 1-2 start despite three homers from Francisco Álvarez and Brett Baty in the first three games. Àlvarez is 5-for 9 with two homers and two doubles to start the season to go along with Brett Baty’s 5-for-14 with a homer and a double. Ronny Mauricio is also off to a nice start hitting .286 in the first three games.
Starting pitching, however, has not been the team’s strong suit. Jose Butto gave four scoreless innings in his first start, but Alex Valverde and Marcel Renteria gave up six and eight runs in their starts respectively.
High-A Brooklyn, much like Binghamton, is also 1-2 to start. Outfielder Rowdey Jordan is off to the best start of anyone on the team, going 3-for-8 with a double, triple, and a walk to start his campaign.
As a whole, however, the team has an .456 OPS to start, the worst of any High-A team so far this season. The starting pitching has been stellar, with only two runs allowed so far in 11 innings. Oscar Rojas and Jose Chacin threw scoreless starts with one hit allowed their first times out. Junior Santos has allowed three runs in two innings with four walks and no strikeouts.
Lastly, Low-A St. Lucie is 2-1 on the back of strong starting pitching. Keyshawn Askew and Calvin Ziegler were solid in their first starts of the season, but 2021 8th round pick Mike Vasil stole the show on night two. Vasil struck out six in four shutout innings, hitting 97 MPH according to Metsmerized’s Mike Mayer.
Offensively, the team is off to a strong start. Alex Ramirez picked up right where he left off, now 6-for-13 to start the year. Shervyen Newton‘s 1.212 OPS is the best on the team, thanks to a pair of doubles and walks in his first three games. Justin Guerrera and Carlos Dominguez both own an OPS over 1.000 as well. Dominguez has the team’s only long ball so far.
Organizational Leaders
AVG- Francisco Álvarez .556 (BNG)
OPS- Francisco Álvarez 2.000 (BNG)
HR- Francisco Álvarez 2 (BNG),
SP ERA- 6 Players, 0.00: Mike Montgomery (SYR), Jose Butto (BNG), Jose Chacin (BRK), Oscar Rojas (BRK), Mike Vasil (STL), Keyshawn Askew (STL)
Jordan Yamamoto, photo by Ed Delany of MMN
Mets Minors News
Khalil Lee was absent from the first four games of the season for Syracuse following a travel issue from Florida to New York and then subsequent days to ramp up for the beginning of the season. Last season, Lee, 23, impressed in Syracuse, is the Mets Minors’ 8th ranked prospect.
Jordan Yamamoto was designated for assignment earlier in the week and cleared waivers, and was assigned to Syracuse, according to MetsMerized’s John Flanigan. Yamamoto was DFA to clear room on the 40-Man before Opening Day.
Yennsy Diaz was also designated for assignment following the Mets’ acquisition of Adonis Medina from Pittsburgh. Diaz has not appeared in a game so far this season for any affiliate of the Mets.
Players of the Week
Offensive: Binghamton C Francisco Álvarez
This one was relatively easy. Francisco’s numbers speak for themselves as he starts his 2022 season raging hot. As if hitting two homers in Hartford was not impressive enough, one went opposite field, showing how powerful he is. Álvarez entered the year as a consensus Top-10 prospect in baseball, and he is going to make a push for the top of the board as several other top-10 names graduate to the big league level to begin 2022.
Pitcher: St. Lucie SP Mike Vasil
Vasil’s strong start made it easy to tab him with this week’s honor. The former Virginia Commodore struck out six over four scoreless innings in his 2022 debut, building on successful innings in his shortened 2021 campaign with the FCL team. The 2021 8th round selection hit 97 with his fastball and has seemingly started to hit a new stride following his arm injury in his senior year of high school and then a shortened 2020 season.
Upcoming Schedule
Syracuse: @ Columbus April 12-17
Binghamton: vs Bowie April 12-17
Brooklyn: vs Jersey Shore April 12-17
St. Lucie: vs Clearwater April 12-17
