Photo By Ernest Dove
The New York Mets have announced their 2017 Instructional League roster. For those interested, no, Tim Tebow will not be taking part in the Instructional Leagues this year. However, there are still a group of Mets prospects who are taking part including the Mets first round draft picks from the prior two drafts:
PITCHERS
RHP Daison Acosta
RHP Garrison Bryant
RHP Jose Butto
RHP Yeizo Campos
RHP Briam Campusano
RHP Matt Cleveland
RHP Marcos Correa
RHP Tony Dibrell
RHP Jeff Diehl
LHP Chistofer Dominguez
RHP Justin Dunn
RHP Colin Holderman
RHP Bryson Hutchinson
RHP Christian James
RHP Liam McCall
RHP Jose A. Moreno
RHP Dedniel Nunez
RHP Noah Nunez
RHP Nathan Peden
RHP Jasson Pena
LHP David Peterson
RHP Marcel Renteria
RHP Oscar Rojas
RHP Ronald Sanchez
LHP Jake Simon
RHP Willy Taveras
RHP Ronnie Taylor
RHP Jaison Vilera
RHP Chris Viall
RHP Kyle Wilson
This list includes both Dunn and Peterson, who were the Mets top draft picks from the prior two drafts. While Dunn has struggled as a starter this year, the Mets still have him listed as a starter. With respect to Peterson, his being listed as a starter is of little surprise. It will be interesting to see how much he pitches considering he made just three starts for the Cyclones throwing no more than 1.2 innings in any of those starts.
(Jacob Resnick/Mets Minors)
CATCHERS
Wilfredo Astudillo
Jay Jabs
Rob Kidwell
Scott Manea
Domingo Martinez
Ali Sanchez
Carlos Sanchez
Juan Uriarte
This two biggest surprises here, and perhaps the two biggest surprises on the Instructional League roster are Jabs and Sanchez. With respect to Jabs, he has little to no experience at the position with his never having played there in college or the minors. However, the Mets see something in him there, which may include but not be limited to a strong arm.
Regarding Sanchez, he is coming off successive seasons with hand issues, and he needed surgery to repair a hamate bone. His being listed as a catcher and not under rehab is a good sign for his rehabilitation from the injury.
(Ed Delany/Mets Minors)
INFIELDERS
1B Peter Alonso
1B Jeremy Vaszquez
IF Luis Carpio
IF Sebastian Espino
IF Edgardo Fermin
IF Andres Gimenez
IF Gregory Guerrero
IF Hansel Moreno
IF Shervyen Newton
IF Mark Vientos
3B Rigoberto Terrazas
3B Jose Peroza
What really stands out here is the Mets not designating their middle infielders as anything other than INF. This seems to follow an apparent organizational philosophy where a players plays shortstop until they prove they can no longer handle the position, and/or they are moved to another position by a better prospect.
OUTFIELDERS
CF Ranfy Adon
RF Wuilmer Becerra
CF Anthony Dirocie
OF Guillermo Granadillo
LF Wagner Lagrange
RF Jose Medina
CF Jhoander Saez
LF Jhoan Urena
CF Jacob Zanon
While Urena has played other positions throughout his minor league career, he has predominantly played third base. With David Thompson being in line for a promotion to Triple-A next year, and Urena already there, this is a possible solution to find both players not only playing time, but also the best possible position for each going forward.
OTHER
SS Ronny Mauricio
OF Adrian Hernandez
CF Stanley Consuegra
This group listed by the Mets as other are from the Mets recent International Free Agent signing class. Notably, Mauricio set the Mets record for largest bonus ever received topping the previous record holder Amed Rosario.
(Stephen Slade / Courtesy of UConn)
REHAB
LHP Anthony Kay
RHP Josh Prevost
RHP Luis Silva
LHP Seth Davis
RHP Ronald Guedez
LHP Joel Huertas
RHP Michel Otanez
LHP David Roseboom
LHP Thomas Szapucki
LHP Blake Taylor
INF Blake Tiberi
For Kay, this presents the first opportunity he has had to throw a pitch while wearing a Mets jersey. When he was selected in the first round last year, the Mets soon discovered he needed Tommy John surgery, and he was shut down for over a year now.
When they say “rehab”, do they mean a rehab assignment in which he will actually play games? Or do they mean he is staying in St Lucie in order to get his physical therapy treatments and exercise programs? Because my understanding was that Szapucki had TJ surgery in July. Seems way too early for him to be throwing. And Blake Tiberi had it in early May. Even for a position player, 4 months is pretty quick to be getting into games.
When did Jeff Diehl officially become a pitcher? I knew he’d messed around with it in extra inning games when the team was short on arms. But I didn’t think he was switching over to it.
https://twitter.com/mikemayerMMO/status/887707406402293761
Thats interesting. I knew about his pitching appearances, and his velocity. But I still find this surprising: he’s shown some flashes as a hitter, the org is short of legitimate OF depth; and he’s a free agent after next year anyway – which doesn’t leave a lot of time for experimenting.
So… was he really injured all of these past four months? Or was he getting pitching instruction from the roving coaches?
He was getting pitching instruction for the most part is what I was told. He’s not really an outfielder (defensively) so the change makes sense. He pitched in college too.
Urena was an adv-A player most of the season, who dropped off significantly in the second half. Its a stretch to suggest that he is a AAA player heading into 2018. He was thrown up there simply because Vegas needed bodies, and the Mets did not want to break up the Binghamton roster during a playoff run, and not because his play earned the double-jump.
There is already a surplus of AAA infielders without Urena, and a shortage of qualified AA-caliber infielders heading into next year (unless someone makes enormous strides in the off season). It seems more likely that Urena goes to Bing and splits his time between 3rd & OF than playing OF full time in AAA.
You have the wrong link to David Peterson.
I know this is a little bit “out there” but I wonder if there’s any chance Pete Alonso could be converted to a 3Bman. He has a Kris Bryant-type build. I don’t know that David Thompson will ever hit for a high enough batting average to make it in the big leagues. With Smith being left handed and such a smooth fielder, Alonso could be blocked.
Its not out there at all. But it just doesn’t seem plausible. They say that Alonso’s defense is quite limited as it is. No one seems to think he can play anywhere else but 1st, and he won’t even play that well.
Thank you, Nessim. Groom him as designated hitter trade bait.
The system we use, it’s an automatic player linker by baseball reference, seems to keep getting that one confused.
This is all so premature. How do you “groom” someone to be trade bait? Do we even have any idea what the trade market might be like in a year or two?
Both players are a couple of years away at this point. So its too early to plot out the rest of their careers. Both were drafted relatively recently, have done well, and have moved through the system at faster than average pace. There’s no reason to make assumptions, much less aspersions at this point. For now, they’re doing well. Let it play out.
Given the position change and pedestrian AAA numbers, I am guessing they don’t add him to the 40 man roster for the Rule 5 draft.
Bad 1B=worse 3B
He has been around 5 years with good power and not much else. Report this year was that he was 96-98 in mop up roles. May be his only shot .
are any games scheduled for instructs?
Exactly.
Absolutely. As of right now, he is an advanced-A player who is likely headed to AA next year. Those guys are seldom protected. Still not sold on the idea that the position change is a permanent, definite thing, though.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/347a9f1390eac2ef95aa70150a5392a28e08b39649451b95eed7f63b9dd9840d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b9ebb3ead23d2172d47885cbb8f5c42f2c3f1e44f5c560cba52c534a9581b8f6.jpg
Wuilmer Becerra taking BP at Instructional Camp,
Mark Vientos running through infield drills.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d7f694008814cf4f4bed90c345255ef6cb4e168d9beb8ff5ad24fc223f3d129d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/894c79297c979b734cd61338405dcb4fb6278bcc2354cb7a39c745c2869b2de7.jpg
Catching prospect Juan Uriarte during drills.
Pitchers instruction.
Word is first game Thursday.
First “game” today, though it’s really just situational stuff.
Thanks for the great pictures. If you want any featured in an article with credit I will give you can email them to the MMN contact page.