With week number one of the MiLB season in the books, a handful of New York Mets top prospects showed the organization an outlook to the future with their fantastic play. Fans should keep a keen eye on these prospects because they are our Mets Minors players of the week!

Triple-A Syracuse Mets (1-5)

The Syracuse Mets have struggled at the plate to this point in their 1-5 start. While they had many high-scoring games, Jake Hager is the only player to hit over .300 in the first week. Over 24 at-bats, Hager slashed .375/.423/.625 with two round-trippers and eight RBIs. 

Hager is an older minor leaguer (28) but has shown good production throughout his career. He has played all over the place in 2021 with parts of three games at shortstop, two at second base, one in left field, and one in center field. 

There weren’t many pitching standouts this week for Syracuse, but Thomas Szapucki was very solid coming out of the pen. Mets scratched him from the start because of a rainy forecast, but brought him in later. 

Szapucki is a 24-year-old that was drafted in the fifth round back in 2015 and is the Mets top pitching prospect in Triple-A. In 3 2/3 innings, the left-hander didn’t allow a run against the potent Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders offense. In the process, he struck out five batters and walked three batters.

Throughout his career, Szapucki has accumulated 193 strikeouts with a 2.36 ERA over 148.2 innings of work. He’s on the 40-man roster, meaning we could see him in the big leagues soon. 

Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies (0-5)

The Rumble Ponies had a tough first week at the dish down in Binghamton, only scoring 11 runs through five games. One bright spot, though, was right fielder Sebastian Elizalde, who totaled five hits with two doubles over 16 at-bats.

He is the only eligible hitter who hit over .300 in the first week for the Rumble Ponies lineup. His slash line consisted of .313/.389/.438 with an OPS of .826, not eye-popping but very respectable. Elizalde has had a solid career in the minors, hitting over .280 with 214 extra-base hits over ten years in the minors.

Final line on Tylor Megill for @RumblePoniesBB in his season debut: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 SO.

He's definitely a guy that could be in the conversation for a major league call-up if everything clicks this year. #Mets pic.twitter.com/e2ssTefXzH

— Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) May 5, 2021

Tylor Megill was a strikeout machine in week one for Binghamton. Facing 19 batters in five innings, Megill sent 10 back to the dugout via strikeout. He earned a no-decision in his first start of the season even though he only allowed one earned run.

Tylor has a giant 6’7″, 230-pound frame that’s built for high velocity and high strikeouts. Throughout his career, he’s accumulated 138 strikeouts throughout only 104 innings, with opponents hitting .216 against him. Megill was an eighth round draft pick that could potentially see his stock rise over 2021.

High-A Brooklyn Cyclones (2-3)

Mets slugging prospect Brett Baty ended his 2019 campaign in Brooklyn and starts 2021 with them as well, this time as the High-A affiliate. Baty has advanced knowledge of the strike zone, allowing him to get the pitch he wants to hit. He worked six walks in four games, only striking out three times in the process, something he’s improved upon since 2019.

In his first week, Baty slashed .462/.632/.692 with six hits and three doubles, leading to an OPS of 1.324. His 1.324 OPS is just narrowly above teammate Ronny Mauricio’s 1.323 mark. Mauricio also had two home runs in the first week. 

Josh Walker, 26, was unhittable in his first High-A start for the Cyclones. In five innings of work, Walker didn’t allow a hit and only allowed one base runner via walk. The 6’6” lefty faced a total of 17 batters, striking out eight in the process bringing his career K/9 ratio to 10.5.

Low-A St. Lucie Mets (4-2)

In his first week playing low-A ball, Francisco Alvarez has turned heads around the Mets organization. The offensive powerhouse catcher showed his raw power potential and his ability to hit to all fields by smashing four extra-base hits.

Through six games with the St. Lucie Mets Alvarez has slashed .529/.667/.882 with an OPS in the stratosphere at 1.549. Alvarez has a simplistic approach at the plate and has an incredible knowledge of the strike zone. In 27 plate appearances, the Mets top prospect has the same number of hits as he does walks (9) and only two strikeouts in that time.

The otherworldly start from Alvarez overshadows the great start from Mets 2020 first rounder Pete Crow-Armstrong. PCA for short, is slashing .450/.593/.550 in his first five games of the season. The center fielder also has two outfield assists.

With his red hot start, Francisco Alvarez is the Mets Minors Player of the Week. 

On the pitching side for the St. Lucie Mets, former Brooklyn Cyclone Garrison Bryant pitched five scoreless innings earning his first win of the season. The 1,090th overall pick in the 2016 draft struck out five and walked one, holding batters to a .167 batting average.

Bryant was a pleasant surprise for the Mets organization after he developed into the ace of the Brooklyn staff in 2019. Throughout 15 games, he sported a 2.81 ERA, recording five wins and striking out 76 in the process. Only being 22, Bryant has a lot of room for growth in this organization and starts his 2021 season positively.

Congratulation to all of our Mets Minors Players of the Week! All four Mets affiliates have the day off on Monday but are slated to be back in action on Tuesday night.