Prospects for the Mets must demonstrate their abilities or else they could disappear.
This offseason, the New York Mets are putting a lot of emphasis on how highly valued their prospects are. Rather than abandoning their abundance of mid-upper tier prospects acquired through trades, they have chosen minor-league or short-term contracts. This has mostly been done in order to concentrate on developing a challenger for 2025–2026 instead than ‘going all in’ for 2024. This is also partly because, with the exception of the Los Angeles Dodgers, all thirty major league baseball teams are relatively idle.
Some players have slipped through the cracks due to the addition of prospects from the 2023 draft and trade deadline agreements. Examining MLB Pipeline’s top 30 list from the start of 2023 to the end, a number of new players have come and gone from the talent hierarchy. The trade deadline moves that brought back Drew Gilbert and Luisangel Acuna are not the only reason for this. A large portion of this is the result of poor performance that was overlooked in favor of the brand-new, flashy items we recently got. Which three prospects are the best ones currently facing a make-or-break season for the future of the Mets?
1. Matthew Allan
For understandable reasons, this young right-hander has been ignored. Allan was regarded as one of the best 18-year-old arms in the nation when he was selected in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft out of Florida’s Seminole High School. With Scott Boras’s management, a team would have to pay a high amount to have him break his pledge to the University of Florida. In 2019, Brodie Van Wagenen took a chance by signing Allan to a $2.5 million bonus.
With Allan surpassing the third round slot worth by millions, there were high hopes. Despite just throwing 10.1 innings between rookie level and Class A Brooklyn in 2019, he quickly rose to the top of the Mets’ pitching prospect list in 2020. Allan was invited to the Mets practice team for the Covid-shortened 2020 season due to the cancellation of the minor league season. At just 20 years old, Allan appeared to be headed straight for his big league debut.
Allan has not thrown a single professional pitch since 2021 spring training. Due to two Tommy John surgeries, he will miss the entirety of 2022 and 2023. Allan has not been mentioned in the public since he had his second surgery in January of last year, and it is unknown when he will make his pitch in 2024. Allan would have an innings cap if he pitched in the minor levels this year. Even though Allan is only 23 years old, the Mets won’t consider him a prospect unless he can pitch this season.
2. Alex Ramirez
The Mets have a history of acquiring very talented players from overseas markets. In July 2019, outfielder Alex Ramirez, at 16 years old, signed a $2.05 million contract with the Mets out of the Dominican Republic. He is regarded as a strong defensive centerfielder with exceptional speed and arm strength. Since there aren’t many right-handed outfield options in 2024, Ramirez should have a good chance of earning a chance in Queens later in the season.
After playing 121 games for St. Lucie and Brooklyn in 2022, Ramirez became well-known. With 11 home runs, 71 RBI, and 21 stolen bases, he had a combined.281 average. As a result, before the 2023 season, Ramirez was ranked among the top 100 prospects in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline. But after that, in 2023, Ramirez only hit.221 for Brooklyn, with 7 home runs and 53 RBI. From being ranked among the Mets’ top five prospects, he is now ranked eleventh.
David Stearns, who added the 21-year-old to the 40-man roster, is taking a bet that Ramirez will make a comeback in 2024. This implies that Ramirez won’t make his debut this year because Ronny Mauricio was added to the roster by Billy Eppler prior to 2022. Given how highly Stearns regards each 40-man roster position, it is clear that this move was made to shield a still-valuable asset from the Rule 5 Draft. But Ramirez might be a DFA possibility if the Mets were to make room for another player during the season. This implies that if the young outfielder wants to stay with the team, he needs to contribute this season.
3. Justin Jarvis
One of the hordes of prospects signed in July might already be closely monitored. 2018 saw Justin Jarvis, a reliable innings-eater starter out of North Carolina, drafted by the Stearns-led Milwaukee Brewers. His splitter is an out pitch that generates a lot of ground balls, but his fastball is not very strong, topping out at 92–94 MPH. This past season, Jarvis struck out 138 batters in 188.2 innings, despite the fact that his pitch arsenal will not trick many hitters. His windup reminds me of Chris Bassitt, the former pitcher for the Mets.
In 141 innings between Single-A and AA in 2022, Jarvis pitched to a 3.83 ERA, truly starting to shine. From 35 walks in 63 innings in 2021 to 66 walks in 141 innings in 2022, his walk rate fell off a steep cliff. Jarvis battled severely at AAA for the Brewers and the Mets, while appearing to be improving. at just 31.1 innings pitched for AAA Syracuse, he recorded an 8.04 ERA, after beginning the season with a 3.33 ERA at AA. With 22 walks in 9 starts, his walk rate was startling.
Despite Jarvis being selected by Stearns in the 2018 Rule 5 Draft, he was not shielded from it this summer. This choice reveals that the Mets do not think Jarvis would have been a significant loss if he had been selected by a different team. At 23 years old and projected to reach AAA in 2023, he is not far from being major league ready. Jarvis needs to improve if he wants to be on the Mets’ depth charts going forward, even though there is reason to think that the new automated strike zone at AAA contributed to his struggles.