26. Jordany Ventura, RHP

B/T: R/R  Age: 21 (7/6/2000)
Ht: 6’0  Wt: 165 LBS
Acquired: International Free Agent from the Dominican Republic (7/2018)
ETA: 2025  Previous Rank: 29
2019 Stats:(DSL/Gulf Coast/Kingsport) 2-2, 3.78 ERA, 15 G, 13 GS, 52.1 IP, 1.09 WHIP, 3.27 BB/9, 9.29 K/9

The spring of 2021 was a tough time for the brightest young pitchers in the Mets system, for the significant injuries were not limited to just the elbow of Matt Allan. Jordany Ventura, still just 20-years-old at the time, suffered the same season-ending injury before ever toeing the rubber in official game action: a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

Ventura had started to venture onto organizational prospect lists due to his eye-opening work as a teenager across three levels of rookie ball in 2019. Though he suffered the same lost opportunity as others during the cancelled minor league season of 2020, reports from instructs that year and into minor league spring training of 2021 were continuously positive as well.

Here’s what we know about Ventura, and why his name got brought up continuously among lower-level Mets arms before his surgery.

Ventura is said to have a very athletic delivery that portends good future command of what was already presently above average velocity and feel for spin. Ventura has been clocked as high as 95 mph with a four-seam fastball that he can spin up to 2450 rpm. He was also showing good feel for a slider and throwing plenty of strikes. The arrow was pointing up in a big way.

With a typical recovery from Tommy John surgery putting Ventura back on a mound later this summer or into the fall, he will be a high priority for Mets evaluators to see if his stuff is on track for a full recovery. If that happens, Ventura will still be just 22 years old and hopefully fully healthy and ready to pick up where he left off for a full season in 2023.

25. Willy Fañas, OF

B/T: S/R  Age: 18
Ht: 6’2  Wt: 190 LBS
Acquired: International Free Agent from the Dominican Republic (1/15/22)
ETA: 2026  Previous Rank: N/A

What do you we know so far about the co-headliner of the Mets most recent international free agent class, Willy Fañas?

The answer is very little, compared to almost any domestic draft product. However, with what we can see with our eyes and deduce from limited reporting, it was already enough to place the young, toolsy outfielder into the top 30 prospects in the Mets system.

Fañas, 18, is already a year older than many high-profile international amateur players are at signing, as he chose to walk away from a lucrative seven figure signing bonus with the Los Angeles Angels during the previous signing period in which he was first eligible. Instead waiting a year to join the Mets for a similar $1.5 million sign-on, Fañas adds a great talent to the minor league system in a specific area of need: the outfield.

While early public reports on Fañas all lack any substantive detail, it is clear that he runs well and projects for at least average to above average raw power. If we take a look at his swing below, we can see a handful of positive traits on display.

Willy Fañas rips a HR in the DSL pic.twitter.com/M43zvh9qBw

— Doug (@FTLO_Baseball) January 16, 2022

Fañas shows quick hands through the box with a swing that is already fairly short to the ball. It’s an athletic swing, especially from the left side, that utilizes his lower half well as he clears his hips early and generates good torso rotation. There is a good amount of present strength already on his still-projectable frame, and Fañas looks like he already shows ability to impact the baseball to his pull-side.

Key ingredients to Fañas fulfilling his celestial potential, such as barrel accuracy, feel for the strike zone, ability to read spin, and the quality of his reads and routes on the other side of the ball, all remain completely out of focus at what is still the inception of his professional career.

The 2022 season will hopefully provide all sorts of clarification and context in these various important terrains. It is yet to be determined if Fañas will be making a stateside debut this summer, or if he will be getting his first taste of professional baseball in the Dominican Summer League. For now, he has already recently reported to the Mets complex down in the Dominican Republic, and his professional career is hereby off to the races.

Mets Top Prospects 29-30
Mets Top Prospects 27-28