New York Mets Top 45 Prospects

Sproat was the Mets’ 2022 third rounder, but he didn’t sign, opting instead to go back for a fourth year at Florida, where he exceeded 100 innings during the regular season and was shut down after the Mets drafted him again. Sproat’s pro debut was sensational. He reached Triple-A as he worked 116.1 innings, generated a 50% groundball rate, K’d a batter per inning, and looked like a near-ready, well-rounded pitching prospect with a plus changeup and sinker. This year has been entirely different. Sproat’s ability to miss bats with any of his pitches has taken a huge nose dive. He was generating plus miss across his entire repertoire in 2024 but doesn’t have a single offering playing to that level of quality now. It isn’t as if Sproat has lost three ticks on his fastball; he’s still touching 100 and sitting 96 and the movement profile of his pitches haven’t changed. He has simply lost feel for locating his stuff in spots that generate whiffs, and as of list publication, he has an ERA over 5.00.

Sproat was a cross-bodied, lower-slot guy in college, but he’s more direct to the plate now, and is throwing from more of a three-quarters slot, giving his fastball rise/run shape rather than the sink/tail of his college days. He has kept throwing hard amid the changes and has been living in the upper-90s without incident for several years. He was still reaching back for 100 late in the 2024 season and again early in 2025. The delivery tweaks added depth and diversity to Sproat’s breaking pitches, and he’s now attacking with six different offerings. He has a sweeper-shaped slider in the 82-85 mph range, the shape of which he can alter to look more like a cutter, and an upper-70s curveball. He also mixes in two- and four-seam fastballs, and at one point was good at pronating over top of his changeup. He doesn’t seem as good at that now as he was before some of the pro tweaks to his delivery. Hopefully the past two months are an anomaly for Sproat (who has been remarkably consistent since the pandemic) rather than a permanent reduction in his feel to pitch. His size, athleticism, arm strength, and control are still of the mid-rotation ilk; now he needs to reclaim what was once also excellent secondary pitch quality.

Tong was an Ontario high schooler and North Dakota State commit who transferred down to Georgia Premier Academy for baseball and signed for just over $225,000. He started 2024 with a dominant stretch and was quickly promoted to High-A, where he spent most of the year before a two-start sip of Double-A. All told, he worked 113 innings and had a 3.03 ERA and 2.33 FIP across 25 outings, posting a 34.2% K% and 10% BB% along the way. He was throwing a bit harder at the start of the year (usually sitting 92-95) than he was at the end, but across the entire season, Tong’s fastball was about a tick harder on average than it was in 2023, and that has held throughout the first half of 2025, as Tong has been dominant at Double-A Binghamton so far.

His heater averages 20 inches of vertical break, which is still plus even when you adjust for Tong’s taller-than-average release height. The way Tong gets to his perfectly vertical arm slot is unique. He has an enormous cross-bodied stride down the mound and then tilts his torso way to the side. His head is often facing first base on release. It makes Michael Wacha’s delivery look generic. The perfectly vertical arm slot creates backspin and ride on Tong’s fastball (it has a miss rate over 30% this year), and it also helps Tong generate big depth on a curveball, which at roughly 75 mph might be too slow to be a plus pitch against big leaguers. Tong also has a changeup and slider, with the former tending to flash plus more often than the latter. His ability to turn over his changeup from that high slot is pretty freaky. He creates such huge screwball action on that pitch that he can use it against righties, too. It has become his best secondary. These four pitches collectively played like an above-average starter’s repertoire in 2024 against A-ball hitters and have been great again in 2025.

I was apprehensive about Tong’s wispy, frail-looking build (which was in the Triston McKenzie realm when Tong was drafted), but he showed up to 2025 camp looking much more physical and strong, like he’ll be better able to withstand the burden of a starter’s load of innings. He’s putting those doubts to rest and looks like a mid-rotation starter who might kick the door down this year and debut ahead of his 40-man timeline.

McLean was a two-way college player and Baltimore’s unsigned third rounder from 2022; the Mets scooped him up for just shy of $750,000 in the 2023 third round. He was only ever really a serious prospect as a pitcher and struck out in half of his 143 plate appearances last year before the Mets cut bait on his hitting. He worked 109.2 innings in 2024, reached Double-A Binghamton, and then was promoted to Syracuse early this year. He’s pitching well there even though he’s often working six or more innings on four days of rest like a big league starter.

The kid gloves are off here, and McLean is absolutely in position to earn a big league job soon. He’s commanding six different pitches with exciting precision for a guy who hasn’t been focused on pitching for very long. His curveball and changeup project to be viable weapons against left-handed hitters (though both are underused right now), while his sweeper and sinker combo is tailor-made to thwart righties. McLean’s delivery is pretty easy to time, his fastball shape isn’t great (he likes to start his sinker above the zone and have it sit down at the top for called strikes), and none of his secondary pitches are especially nasty righty now, but McLean’s breaking balls have a shot to be because he generates nearly elite spin on a couple of them. Given his relative inexperience, his command is pretty special and also has a good chance to be plus at maturity. He has the stuff of a no. 4/5 starter right now and only needs to improve either his breaking ball quality or command to be a firmer mid-rotation starter.

Benge was a draft-eligible redshirt sophomore who missed his freshman season recovering from Tommy John. He had maybe the sweetest swing in the 2024 draft, a smooth lefty cut with a Griffeyesque finish in the dirt behind him, and now it’s one of the cooler-looking swings in pro ball. Hitters with swings like this tend to struggle versus fastballs at the top of the zone, and while Benge does have the low-ball power proclivity typical of hitters of this ilk, he also shows a surprising ability to flatten his path and at least spoil well-executed fastballs in the up-and-away area that tends to cause the most trouble for guys like him. He ran a 91% in-zone contact rate in 2024, a huge improvement compared to his 83% mark in 2023, and made a plus rate of contact at Brooklyn this year before a promotion to Binghamton just before list publication.

Benge has a very thin, tapered frame that is more typical of a pitcher (which he also was in college, sitting 92-95 with a plus changeup) than a power-hitting outfielder, so there’s more power projection here than you’d normally see for a college hitter because Benge has room to fill out. Longer, bottom-hand dominant swings like this do tend to see an uptick in strikeouts in pro ball, so it’s pretty important that he adds strength so he can shorten up. One of the most important, profile-cementing aspects of Benge’s 2025 so far has been his ability to identify and match pro-quality secondary pitches in mid-flight. This guy IDs and bangs all manner of offspeed pitches, and his miss rate against sliders is roughly half the big league average as of this update.

The other “arrow up” aspect of Benge’s game is his defense. Evaluated as a right fielder before last year’s draft, Benge looks okay in center field and should be average there with time. Remember this was a two-way college player who is only now playing center field regularly, and Benge should be plus in a corner if he’s not the best center field option on his roster. He has a plus outfield arm but takes forever to get rid of the ball, a pimple on the fringe of an otherwise pretty stable everyday outfielder profile.

Reimer is an ascendant, well-rounded hitter who missed a huge portion of 2024 with a hamstring injury. He has had a meaningful power uptick in 2025 and slashed .284/.384/.502 at Brooklyn before he was promoted to Double-A Binghamton shortly before this update.

Reimer makes hitting looks easy, and has a balanced, well-rounded offensive skill set that is average or better in every regard. His swing is simple, his timing is exceptional, and he generates power in a short distance with the verve in his wrists. While his hard-hit rate was already quite good in a small sample last year, Reimer’s measureable power has taken a full grade leap and is now hovering around the big league average. He tracks pitches well and has shown comfortably plus feel for the strike zone at every level. This is a high-ball hitter; Reimer’s lower body tends to be upright throughout his swing, which makes it tough for him to contact pitches toward the bottom of the zone and below, but he rarely offers at these.

What will likely limit Reimer’s overall impact as a player will be his defense. His arm and actions are fine for third base, but very limited range makes him a below-average defender there overall. Reimer is built like a guy who might hit his athletic decline relatively early, maybe even soon. The spectre of a first base-only fit on defense looms here, and Reimer has work to do over there as well. Because he tends to play with a high center of gravity, he’s also not great at stretching or moving to snare inaccurate throws over at first. You probably just live with him being a 40-grade third base defender for as long as he remains that, and hope he can stay semi-agile for three or four years. Maybe I’m underrating the prolonged impact of a severe hamstring injury and he can become more mobile through the right kind of conditioning, but he’s a super stiff/tight athlete right now. Still, he has among the more complete and seemingly stable offensive skill sets in the minors and should be an everyday bat because of it. He’s tracking for a debut sometime from late 2026 through mid-2027.

Williams added significant strength between his junior and senior years of high school, which is how he elevated his stock into the first round of the 2022 draft. He then dominated A-ball in his first full pro season before looking overmatched late in 2023 and early in 2024 at Double-A Binghamton. He was shut down with right wrist soreness in late April in the hope that cortisone and rest would allow him to heal, but instead he needed TFCC debridement surgery and missed four months. He was either out or compromised for too much of 2024 to really glean anything from his performance or underlying data. He went to Arizona for Fall League reps, and I thought he looked fine there even though he K’d at a 30% clip. It felt like a season that Jett (and those of us evaluating him) should just flush and move on from. The start to his 2025 has been fantastic and he has an OPS over .900 at Double-A Binghamton as of list publication.

Williams swings with amazing verve and power for a 5-foot-7 guy, but compared to big leaguers, he’s still only generating average raw pop. His top hand is incredibly strong through contact, giving him power back through the middle of the field and to the oppo gap. He has historically had issues with high fastballs, and those will likely persist due to the uppercut nature of his swing, but Williams’ ability to lift the baseball is a big part of why he projects to get to all of his raw power even if he ends up striking out more against big league pitchers. As of this update, Jett is making an above-average rate of contact in Binghamton. To the eye his swing is still pretty grooved, and I’ve held my 40-grade hit tool forecast here, which I didn’t really change in the wake of his wrist injury.

Williams’ defensive fit still isn’t clear. I’ve had him projected to center field because of his speed, as well as his below-average hands and the throwing accuracy issues he’s had from shortstop. Jett split time evenly between center field and shortstop in Arizona, and was running in the 4.1s for me there. So far this year, he’s getting a start or two per week in center and the rest of the time has been at short (mostly) or second (suddenly a lot in the lead up to publication). He is blazingly fast and should be fine in center with reps, but he’s not comfortable out there right now. For Williams to be an everyday center fielder would be mold-breaking in a sense; there really aren’t players this size who play out there every day. But Jett is already kind of mold-breaking because he’s immensely strong for a 5-foot-6 guy, and I think he’s going to back into meaningfully good defensive versatility and essentially be an OBP- and power-driven roving everyday player.

Tidwell added a harder, 86-89 mph gyro slider last year to go with a sweeper and changeup that already rounded out a starter’s mix of pitches. His fastball has cranked from the low-to-mid-90s to more frequently being in the upper 90s; he’s sitting 95-98 and peaking at 99 with downhill plane this year. His heater is missing bats at a plus rate even though Tidwell isn’t really commanding it any better than he had been during his time at Tennessee or in the mid-minors. He lives off of pure stuff and the deception afforded to him by his violent arm action.

Tidwell absolutely has the size of a guy who can sit 96 mph for 140 innings or more, but not the mechanical grace or fastball command. He still has relief risk (he’s also had shoulder problems in the past) even though he’s debuted as a starter and has other starter-y elements. For instance, Tidwell’s pitch mix is robust. He can subtract velo and add sink to his fastball to get a grounder, backdoor the slower version of his breaking ball to lefties, and vary the shape and speed of those as well. His changeup locations are all over the place, but that’s still playing like an average pitch from a miss and chase standpoint so far in 2025. It’s mid-rotation stuff that I’m inclined to round down on a bit because of how much effort is involved in Tidwell’s delivery and how scattered his command has tended to be throughout his career.

The Mets began to play Mauricio all over the place in 2023 (including in left field) looking for pathways to playing time given the performance of the middle infielders ahead of him in Queens. He was primarily playing third base for Licey in the 2023 Dominican Winter League and seemed set to battle Brett Baty and Mark Vientos for playing time at third base in 2024, but he blew his ACL running the bases for el equipo azul, and missed the entire 2024 season. Ronny Mo is back. He began rehab appearances at an affiliate in late April, and was promoted to Syracuse in mid-May (19 total minor league games) and then the big club in early June.

Last we saw Mauricio, he slashed .292/.346/.506 (a 106 wRC+, which gives you an idea of the run environment of the International League) and had his third consecutive season with at least 20 homers and his second consecutive 20/20 campaign; he’d made his big league debut and was also fresh off winning the LIDOM MVP the winter before. This is a huge-framed switch-hitting shortstop with power from both sides of the plate and a rocket arm, but his swing decisions are often so reckless that even though he’s met expectations since his high-profile amateur signing, he’s still an extremely volatile prospect. Mauricio has historically had chase rates near 40%, and things have been no different so far in 2025. He has a career .313 OBP in the minors and is likely to be a streaky, feast-or-famine hitter during the course of his career. His secondary pitch recognition isn’t good, and he’s very vulnerable to soft stuff in the bottom of the zone and below. There are some players who are as aggressive as Mauricio (or more so) who find a way to be impact big leaguers anyway, and almost all of them have power and tend to make at least an average rate of in-zone contact. Mauricio is on the very edge of viability in this respect, with in-zone contact rates of 83-85% during his last few healthy seasons, which is right around what successful big-power/low-OBP hitters like Ozzie Albies and Jonathan Schoop have shown. A typical slash line for Mauricio projects like juiced ball-era Freddy Galvis: a low OBP with 25-30 homers and plus infield defense.

The defense part of Mauricio’s game is a tad rusty right now, which is no shock coming off the torn ACL. He has played a mix of second and third in 2025, and doesn’t always look comfortable making the long range plays common at the keystone. He isn’t apt to go to the ground via a slide or dive, and instead relies on his arm to clean up the mess of his upright style of play. He looks more cozy at third, where a great percentage of plays are in front of him, and he has the hose for the ones that aren’t. Not only does he have a huge max-effort arm, Mauricio’s ability to sizzle the baseball with the flick of his wrist is much more often a useful trait when feeding the pivot man. He’ll likely play a mix of different infield positions throughout his career, with third base being his best.

Originally signed by Texas and then traded for future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer at the 2023 deadline, Acuña made his big league debut in 2024 and was essentially the team’s everyday second baseman this year, with the occasional rep at shortstop or third base, before he was sent down just before list publication. He graduates from rookie status projecting as a good utilityman. Acuña’s best swings are blazingly fast for an athlete his size, though he’s sometimes out of control and pulls off a ton of soft stuff away from him to generate all that power. He has an inside-out approach and tends to only be able to spray fastballs to the opposite field. He’ll likely hit for less game power than he has raw because of his approach. On a contender, he has the offensive skill set of a luxury utilityman.

Acuña came up as a shortstop and has experience all over the diamond, but at the big league level, he has mostly played second base. In anticipation of the infield logjam ahead of him, both the Rangers (Seager and Semien) and Mets (Lindor and McNeil) gave Acuña some center field reps during the past couple of seasons, though barely any in 2025. When he last saw frequent action out there (2024), he looked pretty good despite having not played the position for very long. He’s much more comfortable breaking right than left, and has plus closing speed. While his hands can be clumsy, Acuña has the arm for any infield position; his exchange can be a little slow, but his pure arm strength is plus. He projects into a Dylan Moore sort of utility role.

Gilbert was a late first rounder in 2022 who became part of the Justin Verlander trade during a 2023 season in which he combined to slash .289/.381/.487 between the Astros and Mets orgs. Last year, he dealt with a hamstring issue that sidelined him for much of the year and only played in 62 regular season games. He had lingering hammy issues this spring and is now in his second consecutive year of slugging well below .400, this time at Triple-A Syracuse.

Really, Gilbert has been tracking the same way since he was drafted, there was just a period in 2023 when his surface stats were inflated and it seemed like he would have more in-game power than he actually does. He’ll wail on the occasional middle-middle mistake, especially piped fastballs, but for the most part it takes Gilbert’s entire body to wind up and swing hard, which he simply can’t do all the time and hit for power. His tendency to hunt (and hit) fastballs means Gilbert will sometimes offer at ones around his eyes; he chases more heaters than a lot of hitters. It isn’t because he can’t hit spin, he just can’t hit spin all that hard. On defense, Gilbert is fine in center field but definitely not plus. He doesn’t quite have the gap-to-gap range of an impact center field defender, though his arm is quite good. Gilbert is a low-variance fourth outfielder.

After dabbling the prior year, the Mets had Ewing make a more complete transition to center field in 2024, and he’s barely played the infield (where he’s not very good) so far in 2025. Speed and defense have become the foundation of Ewing’s profile. He has highlight reel, gap-to-gap range and great feel for positioning himself to be ready to throw as soon as he collects the baseball, which is remarkable for someone who hasn’t focused on playing the outfield for very long. Ewing’s reads and routes aren’t always crisp — the lone thing standing between him and a future 70-grade glove — but it’s not out of the question that he could improve in those areas over time.

Ewing’s speed is also the driving force of his offense. He leaves the batter’s box as if he were shot out of a canon and runs in the 4.10 range from home to first, turning many singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Ewing’s surface stats as a pro (a career .274/.399/.415 line) are an embellishment of his abilities as a hitter and aided by his speed. He swings really hard, often with so much effort that it alters his ability to track the baseball. Ewing’s K% is way down this year compared to his norms, but there’s nothing identifiably different about his swing, and I expect his strikeouts to rebound. Ewing should rack up extra base hits and steals because of his speed and style of play, but he probably won’t hit many homers. He’s going to be a good big leaguer and is currently projected as a second-division regular in center field who lacks the consistent offense to be a true impact guy.

Clifford was ranked 57th on the 2022 draft board as an advanced, big-framed LF/1B prospect who looked very athletic in the batter’s box and not so much on defense. It took just over $1.25 million to keep him from heading to Vanderbilt, and after he struggled with whiffs in his post-draft summer, he lit Low-A on fire to start 2023 and was acquired from Houston as part of the Justin Verlander trade. Some of Clifford’s TrackMan data from the early portion of that season was so absurd that he merited consideration as a possible Top 100 prospect. His high-end exit velos were near the top of the scale, and his contact rates were suddenly above average. The sample wasn’t big enough to consider Clifford’s leap in bat-to-ball ability legitimate, and indeed after he was promoted out of Low-A, his strikeout rate spiked and has lived in a scary area ever since. He’s still getting to power and is slashing .238/.360/.463 with 31 homers in his first 168 Double-A games. Clifford shows the ability to move the barrel around the bottom two-thirds of the zone, and he cuts his stride with two strikes. He’s a good rotational athlete whose move forward is balanced but explosive. But Clifford is hitting just shy of .196 against fastballs combined the last two seasons. He’s going to punish low-in-the-zone mistakes enough to be the larger half of a corner platoon, but he’ll probably always struggle to cover the outer third and strike out a ton.

Peña received the top bonus in the 2025 international class (outside of Roki Sasaki) at $5 million, a deal that had been in place since well before David Stearns began to helm the org. Peña was viewed as the most advanced bat in the class, a Devers-ish prospect with real feel to hit and power despite a relatively squat frame at a stocky 5-foot-11 or so. Peña isn’t off to the best start in the early going of the 2025 DSL and looks a bit underwhelming in light of his bonus, but he’s still a good prospect. His swing has big time natural uppercut and an abbreviated finish; he looks a little stiff in the hips and not as explosive as he was billed/looked during the commitment window. Peña is very dangerous in the middle third of the zone but is clearly still looking for his timing at the dish. It’s still early and Peña is very, very young, but as of right now, he doesn’t seem likely to dominate in such a way that compels the Mets to, say, skip him over the domestic complex level next year. Peña is playing shortstop right now, and his actions and arm strength are a fit, but at his size, he’s very unlikely to remain there. He might be a plus third base defender, though. This is a slight downgrade compared to Peña’s pre-signing FV grade but is still in line with that of a mid-first round high school prospect.

Aracena experienced a huge velo boost entering 2024, when he began sitting 94-98 for as many as three innings at a time; that constituted a five- or six-tick bump from 2023, when he was spending his second year in the DSL. This season, he’s throwing harder still and has been up to 101 mph. The movement of Aracena’s fastball is all over the place, but it tends to have natural cut. He tries to get ahead of hitters with his heater, then he’ll work with cut in the low-90s or with upper-80s sliders to finish hitters off. His upper-80s slider has vertical movement that is plus when located. Aracena has been working as both a reliever and starter, and has been stretched out to as many as five innings per outing. Everything he throws is hard and requires a ton of effort, making him a cleaner fit in the bullpen. There Aracena has a chance to be a special weapon. There aren’t really many other big league pitchers whose stuff bears a resemblance to Aracena’s cutter-heavy mix.

A $275,000 signee from 2022, Baez slashed .262/.338/.444 at St. Lucie last year and was given the quick hook up to Brooklyn after just a few games back there to start 2025. As of this update, he has an OPS a shade over .750 as a Cyclone and is on his third consecutive season of a K% in the 15-17% range. This is a sensational hip-and-shoulder athlete who wows you with his ability to throw across his body, as well as his ability to rotate hard through contact. It’s a special, if specific, characteristic that creates some highlight reel plays on both sides of the ball, but doesn’t make Baez a great player or prospect on its own.

Let’s start with defense, where Baez continues to mostly play shortstop. He has the pure arm strength and actions to play short but nowhere near the requisite range, and his first step is slow enough that at times he looks lacking at third base, too. There is a subset of plays where Baez is forced to throw from a low arm slot that he appears most comfortable making, but he isn’t as consistent when he has to get on top of the baseball to throw long distance. This might make his best long-term position second base, where a lot of throws are made back across your body.

On offense, Baez has all-fields doubles power right now thanks to his lubricated hips, and he’s posting roughly average contact and power metrics under the hood. He has pull power even when his feet are early because he’s able to keep his hands back and rotate well through contact. The shaky Jenga block in Baez’s profile is his plate discipline, which gives his profile a Maikel Franco flavor that I can’t quite get out of my mouth. He’s been more patient in early counts this year than in seasons past, but he still expands too much with two strikes. Baez cuts his leg kick with two strikes to be in better position to spoil tough pitches and grind out long at-bats but this limits his pop; he’s slugging .324 with two strikes so far this year. This is a talented player who has performed like a future average everyday player on the surface, but who has some issues (defensive fit, strike zone judgment) that force one to round him down into a second division or bat-first utility FV tier.

Serrano’s parents were athletes at Stetson and his dad was the Giants’ second rounder in 1998. This was a draft-eligible sophomore who, at 6-foot-5, struck out in just 12.8% of his plate appearances in his draft spring and posted a 95% in-zone contact rate. He’s responded well to a fairly aggressive High-A assignment to start 2025 and has a 131 wRC+ as of list publication. Serrano’s current swing lacks impact, but he’s barely 22 and is a wispy 6-foot-5 guy who has room for a lot of strength. The way he bends at the waist to alter the plane of his swing is odd but exciting, and it helps him cover a ton of the zone. He’s vulnerable to back foot breaking stuff but is otherwise a fairly complete hitter whose path to impact is via strength gains.

Serrano’s defensive fit isn’t clear. He played first base as a freshman and center field as a sophomore. His look in center, or any outfield position for that matter, is one of discomfort; he turns routine fly balls into an adventure. It’s worth trying to force things in the outfield for a while longer because Serrano is so inexperienced out there, but a return to first base might be his eventual outcome. If Serrano gets strong enough, it won’t matter where he plays.

Pintaro pitched for five seasons surrounding the pandemic at Division-II Shorter University in Georgia (they’re the Hawks and ripped off Miami of Ohio’s logo), followed by stints in the MLB Draft League and the Pioneer League, where he was seen by a Mets scout. He signed in 2024 and was quickly promoted to the upper levels of the minors, where Pintaro struck out a batter per inning across seven Double-A starts. He was in Binghamton’s rotation to start 2025 and was dominating (51 baserunners and 57 strikeouts in 42.1 innings) before he was called up to make his big league debut out of the bullpen and was then quickly optioned.

Pintaro has a shot to be a big league starter even though he doesn’t look like it athletically. He’s a bigger-bodied guy, but he’s incredibly powerful and loose in the hips and shoulders. He attacks with a cross-bodied stride and low slot, giving his pitches angle coming in from the third base side of the plate. He’ll run his heater up to 99 and bend in hard, low-90s cutters and mid-80s sliders. Lefties get to see the ball a long time against Pintaro, but his changeup has enough sink (and he locates it) to keep them off his fastball. He’s more likely going to be a good reliever, but he threw 74 innings in 2024 and is in position to at least provide length out of the ‘pen or play a swingman role.

Nunez was drafted as a high school shortstop in 2019, released in 2021, then used an NCAA rule exemption (which states that high school signees can return to a school with baseball so long as it’s not Division-I) to attend Division-II University of Tampa, where he began his journey to the mound. He signed last summer and the transition became full-fledged in the Mets org. Conversion arms that pan out tend to do so quickly, and Nunez has already reached Double-A a year after signing. He has future plus command of a monster slider and might be able to pitch in high-leverage situations thanks mostly to that. Nunez doesn’t throw all that hard, but he has a good cutter that keeps hitters off of his fastball, and he’ll turn over the occasional sinking changeup. He’s been utterly dominant all year and is a virtual lock to be put on a 40-man roster this offseason.

Watson spent one season each at Division-III Cal Lutheran and San Joaquin Delta College before heading to USC, where he was promoted from a relief role to the rotation during his lone season there. He’s enjoyed a velo spike in pro ball, with his entire repertoire up two-to-three ticks. Watson has a starter’s mix but may not have a starter’s body or command. He’s wiry and thin, with a longer arm stroke, and he requires quite a bit of effort to throw hard, which detracts from his command. He’ll mix rise/run heaters with mid-80s sliders, upper-80s cutters, and tailing upper-80s changeups. Each of these pitches is consistently above-average (except for maybe the cutter, which is his newest offering) and gives Watson the tools to deal with lefties and righties alike. Here he’s projected as a nasty multi-inning reliever. He’ll have to prove he can sustain this velo across 120 or more innings for his role to be re-evaluated.

Wenninger’s college career began at Murray State before he transferred to Illinois for his sophomore and junior seasons. He pitched well at the start of his draft year (with multiple double digit strikeout starts) but then fell off toward the end. That didn’t happen in 2024, as he capped the season with maybe his best start of the year (10 strikeouts versus just three baserunners across six innings). The Mets have been pretty aggressive about his promotion pace, and he began this year at Binghamton, where Wenninger is working a shade over five innings per outing while carrying a sub-3.00 ERA and excellent peripherals (29.9% K%, 6.3% BB%) as of this update.

Wenninger’s repertoire is led by a plus changeup that might make him a reverse splits starter. His high arm slot creates an odd angle on that pitch, as it just keeps sinking and sinking until it’s under your barrel. His length and size helps his fastball play up against lefties, too. Except for his curveball, Wenninger is throwing strikes at a roughly 65% clip with all of his pitches. He’s a low-variance backend starter prospect who looks like he’ll be ready for primetime late next year or early in 2027.

Hagenman was drafted in the now defunct 23rd round out of Penn State and, after parts of six seasons in the Dodgers org, was traded to the Red Sox in the 2023 Enrique Hernández swap. He elected free agency after the 2024 season and was quickly picked up by the Mets on a big league deal. He’s been working in a swingman role at Syracuse this year and has pitched in two big league games. Hagenman has a funky, ultra-short arm action that he repeats with ease. He hides and commands the ball well enough to generate above-average fastball miss and chase even though he only sits 92. The rest of his repertoire relies on command, with his sliders and changeups living in a chaseable area just off the corners, while his cutter is a strike over 70% of the time. This is a high-floored, stable no. 5 starter ready to contribute right now.

Hamel is a five-pitch righty with an inefficient style of pitching that has put his forecast in the long relief area of most competitive rosters for the last couple of years,. After starting for his entire career up until this season, it seems like the Mets are now shifting him into such a role. Since mid-May, he has been working out of the bullpen for as many as three innings at a time.

So far in 2025, Hamel has the lowest walk rate of his career and is still punching a ticket per inning. His bread and butter pitch is his mid-90s fastball, which has plus vertical riding life and misses bats at the letters. After that, Hamel mixes in three different breaking balls that are spread across a 17-mph gap. His slow, mid-70s curveball was once his best secondary pitch, but as he’s progressed in pro ball, a mid-80s sweeper and upper-80s cutter have surpassed it in usage. He’s sweeper-heavy against righties and the pitch is generating elite miss against them so far this year. He has the tools to deal with hitters of either handedness by mixing curveballs, cutters, and elevated fastballs against lefties. There’s a changeup here, too, but it’s in the trunk. It’s pretty likely that we see Hamel in the big leagues at some point this year, and he should play a low-leverage bulk inning role for the next several seasons.

Suero is twitchy, athletic catcher with uncommon pull power and speed for his position. He lacks the size of a primary catcher but not the skills, and Suero has experience at other positions (1B/LF) that should help him become a really cool multi-positional bench player. Suero has one hell of an arm and his pop times benefit from how quickly he explodes out of his crouch. Despite his lack of size, Suero is a sound ball-blocker, and his quickness out of his crouch allows him to scoop long rebounds before runners can advance. Suero played about 25 games each at first base and in left field last year and is on pace for similar deployment at both spots this year. He’s not great at either of them, but it’d be a nice bonus if he could one day be a backup catcher and also bring a second position to the table. His speed makes left field the likelier second option, and gives Suero yet more roster utility as a pinch-runner. On offense, Suero swings underneath a ton of fastballs, but he swings hard enough to have dangerous mistake power for a catcher. This is a backup catching sundae with a 1B/LF cherry on top.

Baro was a standout at the 2023 Draft Combine and ended up getting $700,000 rather than head to UCLA. He slashed .278/.358/.390 at (mostly) Low-A St. Lucie in 2024 and broke 2025 camp with Brooklyn, where he’s having trouble making quality contact and has a .620 OPS as of publication. Baro is a capable shortstop defender in every way except his throwing accuracy. Too often he pulls the first baseman off the bag, even when he isn’t rushed to make a throw. He has the range, hands, and raw arm strength to play there, and to be a plus defender at the other infield spots, but he needs to cinch up this part of his game.

Baro’s swing path is fairly dynamic; he can move the barrel around and alternate which hand is driving contact, including against elevated fastballs. But he’s really struggling with secondary pitches, which are playing like plus offerings against him in terms of miss and chase, and which he can’t really do anything substantive with even when he makes contact. Baro has a .400 OPS against secondaries as of this update. There’s probably still another gear of raw power in the tank for Baro, who is lanky and projectable as he approaches age 21. It gives him a good shot to be a lefty-hitting utility guy so long as his throwing accuracy improves.

Houck was drafted as a high-upside multi-sport prospect out of Parkview High School in Georgia. He recruited by Georgia Tech to play football but committed to Mississippi State for baseball, rendered moot by his $2.75 million bonus. Houck is an athletic fit at shortstop, with the range, hands, and actions to stay there, but his arm is inaccurate. He has pull power and crushes mistake breaking balls, but he tends to chase ones that are off the plate and is often late against fastballs. He was running a sub-70% contact rate at Low-A St. Lucie before he was promoted to Brooklyn just before list publication. His K% was down in his second FSL go-around but was still concerningly high, hence the glove-driven utility forecast here.

Signed for just shy of $2 million in 2023 and viewed as perhaps the best defensive catching prospect in that international amateur class, Gutierrez had a rough 2023 in the DSL and was back there again to start 2024. He hit so well that he was promoted multiple times before the end of the year and finished at Low-A, where he’s back to start 2025. Gutierrez is still a glove-first prospect. He’s a comfortable ball-blocker, and a fine receiver and thrower for his age, more well-rounded than plus. On offense, Gutierrez was struggling with chase for the first two months of 2025, but for the last month, he has been walking a ton. He has a scissor-style swing where he closes off and his rear leg comes off the ground and behind him as he rotates. It creates an up-the-middle contact profile with limited power, which is why Gutierrez continues to project as more of a backup.

Rodriguez signed for nearly $3 million last January and had an ok DSL debut, with a .219/.359/.356 line in 2024. A hamstring injury delayed the start of his 2025 season. He has a classic power-hitting catcher skill set, with above-average bat speed but below-average present ability on defense. Rodriguez swings hard and has posted slightly-better-than-average contact metrics and plus plate discipline so far as a pro, but he’s physically maxed out and unlikely to develop much more power, if any. Still, he need only get to the power he currently has in order to profile as a catcher. Most frustrating right now is Rodriguez’s defense. He is struggling just to receive pitches cleanly; many of them spin out of his glove. He’s only played a little more than a week’s worth of games since returning from his hamstring injury and might just be rusty, but he doesn’t look great back there as of this update. At this point in time, he looks about as talented as New York’s other young catchers in rookie ball.

Acosta is the youngest player on either of the Mets’ DSL rosters, a physical, lefty-hitting catcher with good bat speed and strength for his age. Acosta is a terrific lower body athlete with impressive bend and twitch, which gives him the mobility to develop as a catcher. His natural uppercut path might make him vulnerable to strikeouts as he climbs, but Acosta’s precocious power should counter that, at least to a degree, and his ability to tap into it is aided by that uppercut path. This is a good developmental catching prospect with exciting offensive potential. He might be a two-year DSL guy because he’s so young. Compared to high school prospects, this is the sort of talent who’d get $750,000 or so in the draft.

Ross migrated from Eastern Kentucky to Northwest Florida State and then finally to Georgia, where he blew out. He also needed a UCL revision in 2023, after the Mets signed him, which shelved Ross for basically all of 2024 as well. He’s back in 2025 and has speedrun all the way to Syracuse in a relief role. Ross is an enormous guy with huge strength and arm speed, touching 102 mph this season. His control is scattered, which is not uncommon of someone coming off surgery, let alone a guy throwing 100. Ross also has a mid-90s splitter and 88-92 mph cutter/slider, both of which are generating elite miss so far this year. It’s mostly because hitters are trying to cheat on 100 mph fastballs and not really because either of those pitches is consistently great, though the split sometimes can be. Ross hasn’t pitched very much during the last few years, and his secondary pitches and control might still improve. If they do, he has a shot to be a higher-leverage arm. More likely, he ends up an arm strength bully in a middle inning role.

De La Cruz was sitting in the mid-90s as a starter for the last couple of years and threw just over 100 innings each in 2023 and 2024. After beginning the 2025 season in the Double-A rotation, he was quickly promoted, moved to the bullpen, demoted again, and the re-promoted just before list publication. De La Cruz continues to pump mid-90s gas (he’ll bump 98), and his slider improved throughout last season and has become his most-used pitch. It’s generating plus miss and chase even though De La Cruz is using it to get strike one a lot of the time. He should break into the bigs as an up/down lefty and then will need to sharpen his command to hold down a more consistent middle inning role.

After he pitched well in relief in 2022, the Mets moved the hard-throwing Gomez into the rotation at Brooklyn to begin the 2023 season. He made three short starts there before he needed Tommy John, and he didn’t pitch at an affiliate in 2024. In 2025, he has become the hardest thrower in the history of prospect coverage here at FanGraphs. Once peaking at 99, Gomez has touched 105 this year and is sitting 97-103. His arm speed breaks the sound barrier and when his delivery is synched up, Gomez approaches the upper boundary of what is possible for humans to do with a baseball. He has zero idea where it’s going and throws a ton of non-competitive pitches, especially when he throws his low-90s slider, which he lands for a strike less than 60% of the time. Gomez is still somehow limiting opponents to a .154 batting average and 60% contact rate. Both his pitches are generating elite miss. It’s reasonable that Gomez would struggle to control this new velocity; it’s historic. He’s more likely to be a Ben Joyce, Mauricio Cabrera or Thyago Vieira type than Aroldis Chapman, more a marvel than a truly effective pitcher.

At a certain point in college, Santucci looked like he had a shot to go in the first round, but instead injuries stacked up and he went in the second. He had surgery to clean up bone chips in his elbow in 2023, and also dealt with a 2024 rib injury that cost him most of May; he only threw a couple of innings in June (he looked healthy, up to 97). He never threw more than 58 innings in any college season and struggled with walks. The Mets shut him down after last year’s draft and assigned Santucci to Brooklyn when 2025 camp broke.

Santucci’s approach to pitching is probably never going to be efficient. A tightly wound athlete who lacks feel for release, lots of fastballs sail on him (look out lefty hitters). Santucci can struggle to get over his front side and finish his breaking ball too. He has a pretty nasty slider on pure stuff, 82-85 mph with plus two-plane length. His changeup, which he barely throws, often cuts on him and looks like a harder slider. He’s starting for now but needs to sharpen his control and flesh out his changeup to do it in the big leagues. He’s more of a lefty relief prospect at this point.

Lambert had a nomadic amateur career, going from an Iowa JUCO to Missouri State to Oklahoma, where he became a wild power reliever. He has looked pretty much the same this year, except Lambert’s slider is getting much better results than in college and he now has a more obvious two-pitch relief mix. He hides the ball behind him for a long time before it appears out from behind his head as he uncorks with huge effort. He rips a lot of them right by people and should continue to in a middle relief capacity.

Orellana has a cartoonish, deceptive overhand delivery, and uses a slider-first approach since he’s been moved to the bullpen permanently this year. His slot helps create depth on both of his breaking balls, which represent over 50% of his pitch usage. Orelanna throws hard, but his fastball is really only a chase pitch elevated above the zone. This style is working for him, as he’s striking out about 36% of opponents and running a FIP a shade over 2.00. He’s K’d over a batter per inning at every level since 2022 and looks like a fun middle reliever.

Lantigua signed for just shy of $1 million in 2024 and slashed .263/.397/.395 in his DSL debut season. He is now the best position player prospect on the club’s FCL roster thanks to his well-rounded offensive skill set and projectable frame. Lantigua isn’t a lanky 6-foot-3 or anything like that, but he has a near ideal baseball build at a square-shouldered 6-foot-1. His showcase tools are currently average or below (he ran in the 4.3s for me during my late-May look), but Lantigua has feel for the zone and barrel. He buttons fastballs to all fields and crushes lefties. He doesn’t have a huge ceiling, but he could be a good part-time outfielder.

Rincon is in his third DSL season but is clearly one of the toolsiest position player prospects on either of New York’s rosters down there. The angular 19-year-old also has some of the best bat speed in the two-roster group. His swing is noisy and elaborate, with a multi-part set-up that can impact Rincon’s timing, but he swings hard for his size and can mis-hit pitches with power to all fields. He runs well enough to continue to develop in center field and is a candidate to be promoted stateside this year, though Rincon is still mostly a toolsy, late-blooming sleeper.

Acquired from Miami as part of the return for David Robertson at the 2023 trade deadline, Hernandez is a skills-oriented third catcher prospect who is light on tools. Hernandez’s throwing feel and accuracy are fantastic and make him a threat to hose runners even though he doesn’t have rocket arm strength. He starts to exit his crouch as the pitch is in flight and can throw from weird positions if necessary. His ball blocking is similarly impressive, but Hernandez’s framing and pitch presentation are not. Mediocre bat speed and barrel feel from the left side (and even worse from the right) limit his potential offensive impact to the occasional belt-high pull shot and put Hernandez more in the realm of a third catcher on the 40-man.

Díaz dominated the DSL in 2021, sitting mostly 91-92 mph with a promising curveball. In 2022, he was essentially skipped over the FCL and sent right to Low-A, where the 18-year-old was suddenly sitting 93-95. He had a mixed season from a surface performance standpoint but was still a well-built teenager with two promising pitches. He needed Tommy John in March of 2023 and returned in 2024 to pitch 74.1 innings combined between the complex and Low-A. This year he’s been assigned to Brooklyn at age 21, and Díaz has been throwing strikes and pitching well with semi-depressed stuff coming out of surgery. Gone are the 93-95 mph fastballs of his teenage years; now Díaz is sitting 91-94 with below-average movement. His secondary pitches diverge laterally and he commands them to both halves of the plate. His size and feel for location are the traits of a big, inning-eating spot starter.

Chirinos has a lot of starter ingredients: a prototypical 6-foot-3 build, a balanced, lower-effort delivery, fair strike-throwing, and two viable secondary pitches. His slider has plus length and depth, and Chirinos tends to command it. It’s going to be his best pitch by a long shot, and might even be a 70 if he can throw harder as he matures. His fastball’s vulnerability forces him to nibble with that pitch. He looks like a spot starter right now, but his ceiling will be dictated by what kind of velo Chirinos can add.

Vargas is a converted catcher who was one of the better pure contact hitters in rookie ball throughout 2022 and 2023 amid a trade from Miami to New York for David Robertson. As he has climbed the minors and matured, Vargas’ physical limitations have come into greater focus and he now projects more as a fringe 40-man utility type. This is mostly because of Vargas’ lack of size and strength, which not only limits his power output but also causes his hit tool to play down some. He has a pretty extreme opposite field batted ball profile, further limiting his power projection. Vargas is also a little undersized for a shortstop; he has to make plays with effort that others can make with size and arm strength. It works for him, but just barely. Look for him to branch out defensively over time and become a left-handed version of Andrew Velazquez.

Rodriguez was acquired from Arizona in the Tommy Pham trade as the D-backs chased the NL pennant, and for a while, he looked like a well-rounded potential everyday shortstop. I either over-evaluated him or he has regressed. His bat speed is insufficient for making any real impact even though Rodriguez has developed as an athlete and looks stronger. His shortstop defense is only fair, not really good enough for him to SLG .300 and be a good big leaguer. But he’s still really young, projectable, and has been tough to make swing and miss despite his other offensive issues. He’s still on the radar because of his contact ability and long-term physical outlook.

Dohm transferred from Ball State to Mississippi State, moved from the bullpen to the rotation, and had a hot start to his 2024 season before he was sidelined with elbow injury. His mid-90s fastball has uphill angle and ride that helps it miss bats at the belt, and Dohm commands his slider (which isn’t especially nasty) to the bottom of the zone. He’s already blown through his career innings high in 2025 and is more of a dev project than the typical SEC arm. He projects as a fastball-heavy reliever.

Elissalt went to high school in Miami but somehow ended up in Philly at LaSalle for his freshman season of college ball. It was his only one, as he would then transfer to Florida Southwestern and then Nova Southeastern before he was drafted. Elissalt has already experienced a four tick bump to his fastball and an eight tick bump to his primary breaking ball. He’s now averaging 95 mph and releasing from a low point that creates flat angle on a fastball with mediocre movement. Elissalt’s college curveball was scrapped in favor of a harder slider with plus length and bite. It’s the mix of a middle reliever if Elissalt can command his fastball to the location where it thrives.

Alvarez spent two seasons in the DSL sandwiched around a year lost to injury. He came to the U.S. in 2024 and had a velo spike, which has carried into 2025. Alvarez’s delivery is a dead ringer for Paul Skenes, except without any of the feel for location. He’s a strapping 6-foot-5 lad with big arm speed and some ability to spin a breaking ball, but he lacks any location consistency. He’s throwing his fastball for an acceptable rate of strikes as of list publication, but he isn’t landing his low-80s curveball. This is an arms strength dev project toward the bottom of the system.

Rodriguez’s 2021 was about as exciting as a 12-inning pro debut can be. Quickly elevated to Low-A at age 18, Rodriguez was touching 97 mph from the left side, and his fastball’s riding action, as well as the vertical snap he was getting on his curveball, made him a prototypical power pitcher prospect. The 2022 season was going to be about Rodriguez holding the velocity across a larger innings count. Instead, he had Tommy John and missed the entire year. Rodriguez returned in the middle of the summer of 2023, but he blew out again and missed all of last season recovering. He returned the week before list publication and looked healthy, touching 97 and spinning his best breakers around 3,000 rpm, but I’m told he’s going to be shut down yet again. When healthy, Rodriguez looks like he could be fast-tracked in relief and has a non-zero shot to be a late-inning arm. It’s tough to value him more than this when he’s barely pitched for several years.