#9 Alvarez
#16 Senga
#33 Baty
#50 Parada
#92 Ramirez
#98 Williams
Notable: Mauricio did not make the top 100. It's clear the scouting/prospect industry are far lower on Ronny Mauricio than many @mets fans are. I'm not saying one side is right, but that much is evident.
-Adam Duvall signed with Boston, 1 year 7 with incentives
Age: 21 | Bats: Right | Throws: Right
Hit: 40/45, Game Power: 55/65, Raw Power: 65/70, Speed: 40/35, Fielding: 45/50, Throwing: 55/55
Type: Powerlifter who catches and will hit 30 homers some day
Reminds me of: He's somewhere in the Venn diagram of Gary Sanchez, Cal Raleigh, Salvador Perez and Willson Contreras.
As a 16-year-old from Venezuela, Alvarez was in the top tier of his international signing class. He signed for a $2.7 million bonus that ranked third-highest in the 2018 class. He is now the clear best player from a group that includes several players who place on this list: Diego Cartaya, Noelvi Marte, Marco Luciano, Orelvis Martinez, Kevin Alcantara, who all received seven-figure bonuses, and two breakout low-bonus prospects in Elly De La Cruz and Endy Rodriguez.
Alvarez's combination of game-changing power and premium position are the carrying tools. His contact ability is just OK and his speed won't help him leg out many infield hits, but Alvarez's shorter arms and incredible strength make for a scary combination for pitchers. Offensively, the question is how his approach and pitch selection will play in the big leagues. But his ceiling is 40 homers if it all clicks -- and that's not the ceiling of many players in the minor leagues, especially at his position.
On top of that, Alvarez has a real chance to be an everyday-quality defender behind the plate. He has always been built like a bowling ball, so his mobility isn't his biggest strength defensively. He makes up for it with his arm and he has made progress in all the soft skills like game-calling while physically staying loose and flexible. I think the four names in the Reminds Me Of section give you an idea of the different paths his career could take, with Gary Sanchez's a familiar roller-coaster ride that Mets fans are hoping to improve upon.
55 FV Tier
20. Brett Baty, 3B, New York Mets
Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
Age: 23 | Bats: Left | Throws: Right
Type: Power-over-hit corner guy
Baty is another prep hitter who has exceeded expectations despite being 19 years old on draft day. In high school, I loved the footwork and agility that he developed from playing multiple sports that helped in projecting him to stick at third base until at least his mid-20s. He is now 23 and about average defensively at third base, but can contribute at all four corner spots. At the plate, he has an average hit tool and pitch selection -- have to hope those don't end up being a notch or two lower -- with 25-30 home run upside if it all clicks.
56. Ronny Mauricio, SS, New York Mets
Age: 21 | Bats: Switch | Throws: Right
Type: Switch-hitting shortstop with massive upside, bad pitch selection.
The report On Mauricio has been about the same for four years: He has plus power potential, plus arm strength, slick actions at shortstop, and above average feel for the bat head, but swings far too often. He'll be 22 years old when the minor league season starts with a chase rate that is a 30-grade ability.
On the bright side, this is the part of hitting that clubs think is most coachable. Essentially, putting the bat on the ball consistently shows you have the eyesight to see the ball, thus the ability to be patient, it's just a matter of training the discipline of laying off the pitch. Mauricio has consistently been young for his level, so there's some natural growth to be expected as he matures, but he'll likely never be above average at this, as the concrete has mostly -- but not completely -- dried in my estimation. He also has the tools to be an above-average defender at shortstop but can be a bit of an adventure at times, which could also still be corrected.
If this all feels negative, he is ranked this high because he could break out and hit .270 with 25 homers at shortstop if things ever just click into place.
also has parada and ramirez listed as 50 grade prospects just outside the top 100.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/insider/story/_/id/35490487/top-100-mlb-prospects-list-2023-kiley-mcdaniel - ( New Window )
“I love that he’s a Long Beach State Dirtbag,” Longo recalled Eppler saying. “I want to make the Mets the ‘Dirtbags’ of MLB.”
“That would be really cool,” Longo replied. “Jeff would love to hear that.”
The two then ventured into planning mode, scrambling to figure out how Eppler could meet with McNeil before the work stoppage was set to begin in just a few weeks. The original plan was for all three men to convene in Los Angeles. But because Longo and Eppler already had shared history, the agent made a suggestion to the GM: “Why don’t you just go to dinner with Jeff and you two talk?”
So McNeil drove down from just north of Santa Barbara. Eppler drove up from southern Orange County. They met near LAX for dinner, making McNeil the first Mets player that Eppler sat down with as the new GM.
Sitting across the table, Eppler outlined the Mets’ expectations for McNeil and emphasized that whatever transpired during his 2021 season did not matter. That year, McNeil hit .251/.319/.360 with seven home runs in 426 plate appearances. It was a stark dropoff from his previous two campaigns, when he slashed .316/.384/.511 through 776 plate appearances. Still, Eppler told McNeil that his skill set was “extremely valuable for this organization.”
Longo recalled being pleased with the exchange. Experience has taught him that whenever a player hears directly from his employer that he is of value, the sentiment carries weight. It eases pressure. It supplies confidence. It helps.
After meeting with Eppler, McNeil told Longo something that would matter when it came time to talk about an extension: “I can play for that guy.”
How Jeff McNeil’s path to an extension with the Mets began with a simple dinner - ( New Window )
Jeff Passan
@JeffPassan
·
5m
News, free and unlocked, at ESPN on Jeff McNeil's four-year, $50 million deal with the New York Mets. With McNeil not set to reach the open market until going into his age-33 season and free agency unkind to players with limited power, he went extension:
McNeil career OPS: .828
Correa career OPS: .836
McNeil is a steal!
Quote:
Jeff Passan
@JeffPassan
·
5m
News, free and unlocked, at ESPN on Jeff McNeil's four-year, $50 million deal with the New York Mets. With McNeil not set to reach the open market until going into his age-33 season and free agency unkind to players with limited power, he went extension:
McNeil career OPS: .828
Correa career OPS: .836
McNeil is a steal!
they had leverage on him but still completely agree. id take 2 or 3 mcneils over a lot of the guys on 300m contracts.
The Mets have drafted exceptionally well, and have had some huge successes on the international front, at least in terms of getting guys who would become top-100 prospects. This year’s list has five current Mets prospects, plus two former Mets prospects in Pete Crow-Armstrong and Endy Rodriguez, to say nothing of other prospects they’ve traded away who have since graduated (like Andrés Giménez, Jarred Kelenic, Amed Rosario and more). The current system is pretty top-heavy, but the upper tier, which has the five guys on the top 100 plus two more I’d say were in the next 30-40, is good enough to make this a mid-level farm system overall. There’s some intriguing pitching much lower down, but nobody has popped yet to be a likely big-league starter.
also another good sammon article on baty working on his defense with troy tulowitzki.
“He’d be trying to show me up,” Baty said in a recent phone interview. “And, I mean, most of the time he would.”
Ahead of what could be a critical 2023 season, Baty sought help to improve defensively at third base. He turned to a former star shortstop in Tulowitzki, who essentially gave Baty a no-nonsense master class on how to be a pro. It was exactly what he wanted.
Baty’s time with Tulowitzki should only help.
Training with Tulowitzki, it turns out, includes getting instruction from guests. A couple of weeks ago, Blue Jays third baseman Matt Chapman and shortstop Bo Bichette joined the workout group at Texas. Tulowitzki, who played for Toronto near the end of his 13-year career, is close with Dante Bichette, Bo’s father, because of their deep ties to the Rockies. As a three-time Gold Glove award winner at third base, Chapman’s presence was especially beneficial.
“That was a really good experience,” Baty said. “He is one of the very best third basemen in the game. Just to be able to pick his brain about how he goes about his business over there, and how he fields, his cues and what helps him out was really good.”
Why Mets prospect Brett Baty spent a critical winter working with Troy Tulowitzki - ( New Window )
i think both he and alvarez should get 200-500 innings on defense in the first half, and then june/july 1 get consideration for DH (and occasional field work) if they are the best bats for the DH spot.
ahead of that vientos is the only one who should be considered for full time DH day 1 just because that's likely all his glove allows any way. but even with him unless he has an alonso 2019 spring, id probably get him on track in AAA for a month while giving ruf/vogey a shot to get off to good starts.
worst case they have a bad month or two, you trade for a vet at the deadline, and send them back down. but that's still not as bad of a case as never giving them a shot, wasting at bats on guys who had no future here, and then making trades for a guy who was probably one of the worst hitters in mlb over the second half.
"All of those players still have development benchmarks to hit, mostly on defense; because of that, they will not be given the chance to compete for the DH gig out of spring training."
sources say Kodei Senga had an "iffy" physical for @mets
#Mets
It's likely *why* they included language *if* he has TJ or elbow issues. The deal is done, he's saying before they agreed to the deal they had concerns.
only once AAA becomes a joke do they have to come up. though obviously if you have MLB guys not performing like last year the bar gets a little lower.
OF Alex Ramirez
C Kevin Parada
C Nick Meyer
RHP Grant Hartwig
RHP Connor Grey
RHP Eric Orze
C Hayden Senger
LHP Josh Walker
INF Jonathan Araúz
RHP William Woods
1d
.@Jim_Duquette proposes an 8-year, $240 million extension for Pete Alonso on Mets Hot Stove, while @martinonyc, Terry Collins, and @emacSNY discuss the possibility of a deal getting done this offseason: on.sny.tv/PJ2hYmJ
i think that's a lot closer to what he'd get as a UFA and not enough discount for the reality that he's 2 years away.
though i guess if you consider that he was 7m high on mcneil's 50m deal, that's 14%, so a similar miss here would bring the alonso guess down to 8 years 204m, which i think is pretty close.
i see the mets being willing to go longer with more total $ in return for a lower aav (and less tax) so i think my guess would be a 9 year $210m.
i think that's basically the deal, with a 9th year giving the mets a way to spread the hits out over 1 extra year.
8 years takes alonso through his a35, so i dont think he'd care to get back to UFA 1 year sooner vs a little extra total $ guaranteed but maybe after abreu's deal there's some hope to get another multi-year deal after 35.