Drew Gilbert, Photo by Steven Woj of Metsmerized

The manipulation of service time has long been an important tool used by teams around the league. Young players can often be the catalyst of a team’s prolonged success, but fears of losing that player to free agency can often cause an organization to delay a player’s major league debut for reasons beyond the player’s capabilities on the field.

The most recent collective bargaining agreement agreed to by players and owners prior to the 2022 season sought to address the issue by introducing a Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) for organizations. With PPI in place, teams could directly benefit from promoting young talent to the major leagues by way of compensatory draft picks in future first-year player drafts.

Players must meet three criteria to be eligible for PPI: (1) they must appear in the preseason Top 100 rankings by at least two of Baseball Pipeline, ESPN, or Baseball America; (2) they must be rookie-eligible entering the season; and (3) they must accrue one year of service time by the end of that season.

If a PPI-eligible player goes on to win a Rookie of the Year Award or finish in the top three in MVP or Cy Young voting before qualifying for arbitration, he will earn his organization a pick slated at the end of the first round of the following first-year player draft.

With this in mind, teams have been far more willing to promote top prospects earlier in their careers, and three PPI-eligible players have already won major awards. Julio Rodríguez became the first to do so when he won the AL ROY award in 2022, and both Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson netted their respective teams a first-round pick in the 2024 Draft when they each took home ROY awards this past season.

The Mets, in particular, have certainly been more aggressive in promoting their top prospects in recent seasons, with players like Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez being given major opportunities to become mainstays in the everyday lineup. With that in mind, here are the players the Mets might be able to benefit from under this new PPI system during the upcoming season and beyond.

The Mets had a prime candidate for PPI in Ronny Mauricio, who featured on both ESPN and Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects lists and made quite the impact in his short time in the majors to close out the 2023 season. However, he will miss all of the 2024 season after suffering a torn ACL playing winter ball back in December.

None of the Mets’ other top position-player prospects have played above the Double-A level, but Luisangel Acuña and Drew Gilbert are both likely to see at least some major league action in 2024. Acuña is a menace on the basepaths with his terrific speed and has great defensive skills as a middle infielder, but he lacks the pop that his older brother and reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr., possesses. Gilbert has exceptional bat-to-ball skills, which buoys his average power at the plate, and he projects as a long-term option in center field with plus speed and a strong arm.

First base/outfielder Ryan Clifford is the final Mets player that was on two of the three lists, though he doesn’t have any experience above High-A ball. The Mets acquired Clifford last year in the Justin Verlander trade that netted the previously mentioned Gilbert.

Unfortunately, given their lack of experience at the Triple-A level, it’d be a stretch to say that either will accrue enough major league service time to be eligible for PPI during this upcoming season. Both will be players to look out for when the 2025 season comes along.

No Mets pitching prospect appears on two of the three Top 100 Prospects lists to be eligible for PPI. The only pitcher to appear on any of the lists was Christian Scott, who is the No. 99 prospect in baseball, according to ESPN.

Regardless, Scott is another player to keep an eye on for PPI in 2025, given how well his 2023 season went. He had a standout year, posting a 2.57 ERA and recording 107 strikeouts across 87 2/3 innings on the mound while working his way up to Double-A. He has a sensational combination of strong strikeout stuff and great pitch command, as he issued just 12 walks across 19 starts and had a 0.856 WHIP. Scott has the making of a pitcher who could fill in a backend rotation spot for the major league club as early as the latter half of the 2024 season.