It was an up and down month of May for the Mets minor league teams. The Las Vegas 51s where 14-12 in May while the Binghamton Mets had a terrible month going 9-21. The St. Lucie Mets (12-16) and the Colombia Fireflies (14-15) also joined the B-Mets in the under .500 group.

Here are our picks at MMN for each player of the month award:

Offensive Player of the Month

T.J. Rivera (Las Vegas 51s) had a great month of May (.373/.413/.548)  to prove yet again that he deserves a shot in the Majors. Rivera has played 3rd, 2nd, 1st and left field this season showing his versatility to go with his amazing state line. Rivera now leads the PCL with 46 RBI, 31 of them came in May which lead all of minor league baseball. He had a 17 game hitting streak this month and hit five homeruns in May. He also had 15 multi-hit games. He was named the PCL Player of the Week on May 23rd.

Honorable mention: As the other teams in the Mets minors struggled some offensively the honorable mention went to the 51s second baseman Dilson Herrera. He showed had a great power stretch in May, between the third and sixteenth of May hitting eight home runs. He also collected two games in which he drove in five runs. For the month Herrera hit .292/.344/.558 with 20 RBI and 25 runs scored.

Starting Pitcher of the Month

P.J. Conlon (Columbia Fireflies, 4-1, 1.62 ERA) was a honorable mention last month is now our Starting Pitcher of the Month. In 33.1 innings in May, he allowed just 25 hits and eight walks to have a 0.99 WHIP for the month. His last start in May, Conlon got his first lost and his first start with allowing three of more runs. Overall, Conlon leads the South Atlantic League with seven wins and is second with a 1.42 ERA in his first season as a starter.

Honorable mention: Andrew Church (Columbia Fireflies, 2-0, 0.71 ERA) was brought up on the 24th of May. He was great in his season debut going five scoreless innings and did not disappoint in his second start going 7.2 innings of one run ball. Over those two starts he allowed just nine hits and two runs (one earned). He walked none and struck out 15 in 12.2 innings pitched. What a start to his season for the 2nd round pick from the 2013 draft. He has been hitting 93/94 with his fastball while getting a ton of swings and misses with his breaking ball.

Relief Pitcher of the Month

Akeel Morris (Binghamton Mets) was great in May after a horrible April. He pitched to a 0.82 ERA allowing just one run in 11 innings this month. The run he allowed was a solo homerun on May the 23th. Before that homerun Morris had not allowed a run in nine outings. In May he allowed just eight hits and four walks, while striking out 14. A bounce back month for the Binghamton closer.

Honorable mention: Tyler Bashlor (Columbia Fireflies) is honorable mention in back-to-back months, having an even better month than he had in April with a 0.62 ERA. In 13.2 innings, Bashlor allowed nine hits and two runs (one earned). The one blimp on the radar for the hard thrower was the eight walks he issued but he also struck out 15.

Defensive Player of the Month

Tomas Nido (St. Lucie Mets) has been terrific throwing out would-be base stealers for the entire season, he has caught already 27 in 2016. This month Nido has been on fire, in one game this May he was able to throw out three runners trying to steal. Nido has allowed just three passed balls with a 44% caught stealing is really impressive.

Honorable mention: Milton Ramos (Columbia Fireflies) makes honorable menthion for the second straight month. The Mets have a lot of middle infield talent in the minors and Ramos is certainly one of them. He’s made just two errors this month with making some sparkling plays at short. With Rosario, Guillorme and Ramos the Mets Single-A teams have some flashy middle infield defense.

It wasn’t a great month for the Mets minors as the overall record was 49-64. As always though, we’ve seen some positive things including performances by Josh Edgin (8.2 scoreless innings), Kevin Taylor (.903 OPS) and Matt Obertste (.313/.367/.495).