When Sandy Alderson and his front office took control of the Mets after the 2010 season, the farm system was essentially barren of top prospects – or prospects in general – short of Matt Harvey and a small handful of other players.
4 1/2 years later, the Mets are rich with talent, from pitchers to position players. So much so Baseball America has ranked the Mets organization as having the fifth best farm system in the game today.
John Manuel of Baseball America lists in order Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Brandon Nimmo, Dilson Herrera, and Kevin Plawecki as the organizations top five prospects, followed by Amed Rosario, Michael Conforto, Rafael Montero, Marcos Molina and Gavin Cecchini rounding out the top ten.
What’s most impressive about the organization’s growth over the last year or two is they were originally deep in top shelf pitching, but lacked a lot of quality position player prospects at the top of the organization. In BA’s list, six of the top ten Mets prospects are position players, and that doesn’t include Dominic Smith or Matt Reynolds.
The Mets are going to take a hit this summer in the first round, as they surrendered that pick in order to sign Michael Cuddyer this past winter. They’ve also thinned out to a degree thanks to December’s Rule 5 draft, and the trades of both Matt den Dekker and Cory Mazzoni this week. So, it will be interesting to see the Mets strategy in the draft and the types of players they sign beginning in the second round.
Nevertheless, it’s almost hard to digest how far the minor league system has come over the last few years. Sure, a lot can be attributed to good scouting a sound draft and international signing strategy, and but the player development system has to mold this talent, which they’ve clearly done in the eyes of industry experts.
To see MLB.com’s top 30 Mets prospects in 2015, click here.
Just Mets 