Photo by Mets.com
Earlier this week the Mets announced their Sterling Award winners for the minor leagues with Michael Conforto being the Player of the Year and Robert Gsellman named the Pitcher of the Year.
Top prospects that were named the most outstanding player for their teams this year included Dominic Smith (St. Lucie) and Gavin Cecchini (Binghamton). The full list and breakdown of the 2015 winners can be read here.
But do these awards tell you anything about the future of these players and do they correlate at all with success at the MLB level?
The Mets big league 40-man roster (including 60-day DL) currently has 31 players that came up through their Minor League system and 22 of them have won at least one Sterling Award. The active roster has 16 Sterling Award recipients including last years player (Dilson Herrera) and pitcher of the year (Steven Matz).
Herrera is one of seven players on the active roster that has won player of year alongside David Wright (2004), Daniel Murphy (2008), Lucas Duda (2010), Wilmer Flores (2012), Kevin Plawecki (2013) and of course Conforto from this year.
From the pitching side the Mets active roster has three guys who have won the award for top pitcher in Matz (2014), Jeurys Familia (2009) and Jon Niese (2008). They also have Rafael Montero (2012) and Gabriel Ynoa (2013) who are on 40-man roster that have won pitcher of the year.
Sandy Alderson has also used some award winners this season as assets, trading Michael Fulmer (2012, Savannah), Miller Diaz (2012, Kingsport) and Robert Whalen (2013, Kingsport) to improve the big league team.
Noticeably missing from being mentioned so far are three of the Mets most important pitchers going forward.
- Matt Harvey: Who surprisingly never won overall pitcher of the year for but won the award for Las Vegas in 2013 and Binghamton in 2012
- Jacob deGrom: Unsurprisingly has been left of the Sterling Award record books as shot up through the Minors mostly unheralded.
- Zack Wheeler: Won the award for most outstanding player for the B’Mets in 2012 is glad to still be in the Mets organization and could be a huge boost around trade deadline next year.
Outside of the Mets team there are eight players who won Sterling Awards that played in the Majors this year and they are Ike Davis, Josh Thole, Gonzalez Germen, Jefry Marte, Ezequiel Carrera, Carlos Gomez, Allan Dysktra and Jose Reyes.
The 2015 New York Mets are on the verge of their first World Series appearance since 2000 and the foundation of the team has been built from within.