The teenage prospect acquired at the trade deadline has caught the attention of FanGraphs.
This offseason, New York Mets fans have been keenly monitoring the top prospect lists. After all, there’s only so much Luis Severino analysis one can do. We anticipate that the next championship elements will be put together from the farm system.
FanGraphs announced their top 101 prospects on Thursday, a list that included some familiar names but was arranged differently. Jett Williams was immediately behind Drew Gilbert at 52, having reached 54. A bit lower, at 98, we discover Christian Scott squeezing in. Jeremy Rodriguez, the huge surprise, was two spaces ahead of him.
Purchased during the previous year’s trade deadline for Tommy Pham, it’s an odd decision. Rodriguez is not on most rankings of the top 10. FanGraphs took a risk with this one, ranking the 17-year-old as one of the game’s top minor league players.
How FanGraphs compiled its list of Jeremy Rodriguez
FanGraphs appeared to place a lot of weight on the Mets’ decision regarding the year’s conclusion. Luisangel Acuna was not visible. His problems at Binghamton could be one reason for that. Notably missing was Ryan Clifford as well. After joining the Mets organization, the respective stats of those two other trade deadline acquisitions sank precipitously. Was this enough to make them pay and give Rodriguez the reward?
Rodriguez was praised for his “high floor” and his ability to hit the ball with the bat. His ability to track pitches at the plate is compared by FanGraphs as having “bird-of-prey precision.” The obvious moniker for him is J-Rod. Perhaps, though, if this keeps up and he does wind up with the Mets, we’ll start referring to him as “el halcón,” which is Spanish for “the falcon.”
Rodriguez’s slash line of.422/.536/.711 since joining the Mets organization speaks for itself. The sample size was modest, but then so was his whole professional career, which spanned only the previous season.
He demonstrated enough for FanGraphs’ evaluators to include him on their list of elite prospects. Even if it’s undoubtedly subjective, this is nevertheless an unexpected decision. When MLB Pipeline updates their charts for 2024, it will be interesting to see where they place him and whether he can move up from the outside of the top 30 to at least the top 10.