Photo Credit: Rick Nelson/MiLB.com

Keith Law of ESPN, released his rankings for the Top 10 farm systems in baseball and had the New York Mets as the 7th best. The Mets move up nine spots after being ranked 16th last year.

For the second straight season, Law had the Atlanta Braves at the top of the rankings. They are followed by the New York Yankees at #2, San Diego Padres at #3, Pittsburgh Pirates moved up to #4 and the Los Angeles Dodgers dropped three spots to round out the Top 5.

The rest of the NL East teams are outside of the Top 10 with the Philadelphia Phillies dropping eight spots to #14, the Washington Nationals dropping seven spots to #22 and the Miami Marlins staying at #29.

Law had this to say about the Mets ranking, “The Mets were not aggressive at the trade deadline in July, and while that may have angered some of their fans, it means we won’t see someone they traded win a Rookie of the Year award in 2017. It also means a very strong, deep system remained intact, with two potential stars at the top of the system and a lot of pitching depth to potentially help, even as soon as this year with the sudden velocity spike Robert Gsellman saw in 2016.”

Gsellman took a huge leap this past season with his velocity spike and refined slider that helped him be successful at the major league level. He’s a big reason why the Mets farm system will see a jump in rankings and he could be in some publications Top 100.

Law added this as well, “Several years of strong draft results have restocked the system, first with young position players with upside and now with polished starting pitchers, led by Justin Dunn and Thomas Szapucki. Getting the team’s Low-A affiliate out of the hitters’ graveyard of Savannah won’t hurt matters either. And there’s more upside to come, with three of their top 20 prospects coming back from major injuries (Luis Carpio, Wuilmer Becerra, Anthony Kay).

(Jacob Resnick/MetsMinors.net)

Dunn and Szapucki are two very high ceiling pitchers that the Mets have scooped up in the past two drafts. In the 2016 draft. they also added a ton of college infield talent with the picks of first baseman Peter Alonso (our #12 prospect at MMO), second baseman Michael Paez, shortstop Colby Woodmansee and third baseman Blake Tiberi. They picked up outfielder Desmond Lindsay (our #5 prospect) in the second round of the 2015 draft and he has become a borderline Top 100 prospect in baseball already.

The Mets top two prospects Law calls potential stars are shortstop Amed Rosario and first baseman Dominic Smith, who could both start the 2017 season at Triple-A Las Vegas. They could also both be long-term fixtures in the Mets lineup with Rosario having the higher ceiling and lower floor that will have him in ranked in some Top 10 MLB prospect lists.

Beyond the guys that Law mentioned the Mets also have two high ceiling players in Andres Gimenez and Gregory Guerrero that they spent a $2.7 million combined on as international free agents in 2015.

The 2016 season brought breakout performances from the likes of catcher Tomas Nido (our #10 prospect), left-handed pitcher P.J. Conlon and infielder Phillip Evans. Right-handed pitchers Chris Flexen, Marcos Molina and Andrew Church came back from injuries to continue the Mets trend of developing intriguing rotation prospects.

The Mets farm system also has players ready to contribute at the major league level in outfielder Brandon Nimmo, infielder Gavin Cecchini, lefty reliever Josh Smoker, infielder T.J. Rivera and right-handed pitcher Gabriel Ynoa.

Other names to watch out for this season for the Mets bullpen are prospects David Roseboom (lefty), Paul Sewald, Kevin McGowan and Corey Taylor.

I’m not that surprised to see the Mets ranked 7th given the high end talent they have in their top 10, prospects they have that could help in 2017 and the great depth they have in not only their pitching prospects (amazingly still after numerous trades) but now in position players too.