We’re all frustrated with Brett Baty. Shouldn’t he be good by now? At the very least, shouldn’t he be established as an average starter by now? At this point we have to accept the fact that there’s probably just a single-digit chance that Baty is going to be a good player. Maybe he can be an average player. Perhaps he’s nothing more than a bench player. That’s not the worst thing in the world – a team needs bench players, too.

What do you want from a bench player? There’s not one right answer to that question. Defensive versatility is nice and you can play Baty at five positions, so that’s something. He’s got some pop, as Wednesday’s double off the top of the wall shows. He’s not afraid to take a walk and in the last two years he’s been successful on 13 of his 14 stolen base attempts.

So, what’s the problem?

The most glaring issue is that Baty strikes out too much, especially when compared to his power. While he can hit the ball with authority, Baty has just a .118 ISO this year, which is backup middle infielder territory. The league-average ISO is a .156 mark. It’s one thing to have a 27.8 K% if you’re hitting 30 HR and have a .200-plus ISO. It’s another thing entirely to combine a .118 ISO and a 27.8 K%, like Baty is doing.

You combat that by looking to hunt strikes early in the at-bat. If a pitcher throws a get-me-over strike, you’ve got to be ready to pounce. While they’re not all meatballs, pitchers throw Baty a first-pitch strike 65% of the time, a mark that would be tied for the 17^th-highest in the majors if he had enough PA to qualify for the leaderboards.

Baty has 417 PA, meaning that pitchers have thrown him a first-pitch strike 271 times. He swung at the first pitch 155 times. That means he’s watched a first-pitch strike at least 116 times. We don’t know how many times Baty swung at a pitch outside of the strike zone on the first pitch.

When Baty swings at the first pitch, regardless if he makes contact or not, he has a .732 OPS, compared to a .634 mark overall. When the PA ends with the first pitch, Baty slashes .468/.469/.745, with a HBP accounting for his OBP exceeding his AVG. This below-average hitter turns into a monster in this situation. In this split, Baty has a 169 OPS+.

How is this possible? Part of it is taking strikeouts out of the equation.

Furthermore, 12 of his 27 XBH have occurred when he made contact with the first pitch, including six of his eight HR. That’s 75% of his HR occurring in just under 12% of his PA. On the flip side, when he takes the first pitch, Baty has a .570 OPS and this includes times when the first pitch is a ball, which seems impossible.

The league average when a batter starts with a 1-0 count, regardless of when the PA ends, is an .813 OPS. For Baty, he has just a .688 OPS after starting with a 1-0 count. That’s a 70 OPS+ in the split. On the flip side, the league average when a batter starts with an 0-1 count is .605, a drop of 208 points. Baty’s drop is similar – 201 points. He just starts out in a bad place and goes to an even worse one.

For most hitters, the plan is to wait for a pitch you can drive, whether it comes on the first pitch, the third pitch or the fifth pitch. It seems to me that if Baty gets a pitch in the strike zone on either of the first two pitches, he should be swinging. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a pitch he can drive or one that he can, at best, bloop for a hit. The results are just so bad when he goes deeper in the count.

And this isn’t a one-year fluke. For his career, Baty has a 1.096 OPS when the PA ends with the first pitch. He’s out-performing in the split here in 2026. Yet he’s always been good.

*****

Maybe the ship has sailed for Baty to be a success with the Mets and the best thing that can happen for him is a trade. It’s always painful when a player from your org becomes successful somewhere else. It just seems that with 1,451 PA with the Mets that it would be extra painful to see him thrive with another team. Justin Turner had 895 PA with the Mets and it was certainly no fun to watch him turn into a star with the Dodgers.

The thing is that Baty has had multiple chances. He’s had three seasons with at least 389 PA – how many more can you give him? This year’s 78 OPS+ in 417 PA is simply not acceptable. Baty has done better recently, with a .727 OPS in his last 138 PA. Yet he did even better down the stretch last season and that didn’t act as a springboard to a good year here in 2026.

Perhaps the best solution is to reduce him from a quasi-regular to a full-blown reserve. Maybe 250 PA is the right amount of playing time for his skill set. He’s a guy who can fill in adequately for 2-3 weeks if a player goes on the IL. You just don’t want to play him full-time for a period longer than that. It’s not what we hoped for. But things don’t always break your way.

Have you wanted to write about the Mets but didn’t know how to get started? Well, here’s your opportunity! We’re looking for a couple of new writers to join the site. There’s a flexible start date but my hope is to get someone in here ASAP.

When you join us, you’ll find yourself in a community comprised of intelligent, passionate adults. We don’t have anything close to the biggest site around. What we do have are people who are interested in reading and learning about the club. They’re more interested in informed discussion than childish arguing.

Here’s what would be expected of you as a writer. At least once a month – you’re both welcome and encouraged to contribute more – you need to submit an article of at least 750 words on any Mets-specific topic you wish. The idea is not for you to count words but rather to pick topics that lend themselves to an article of that length. It sounds daunting but it’s nowhere near as bad as it seems. My article earlier today had 1,364 words.

Additionally, you’ll be expected to read other writers at the site and comment on their articles. Finally, it would be great if you would occasionally chime in on our daily Game Chatters.

As for pay, you’ll make the same as me, which is – unfortunately - nothing. This is a labor of love for all involved. But the writers who are here tend to stay for years, which hopefully is an indication that it’s both a good and worthwhile experience.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, simply send a note to Mets360@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours with more details and what comes next.

Let’s Go Mets!

Baseball-Reference does this very cool thing where if you go to a team’s page for a given year, they’ll display a picture for each of the top 12 players on the team for their version of WAR. It’s a quick snapshot of who’s contributing the most. rWAR is a good stat. My opinion is that fWAR is better, primarily because it uses FIP as its main pitching input and Statcast fielding numbers for defense.

FanGraphs doesn’t have anything remotely like the pictorial show that B-R has. Frankly, it required jumping thru some hoops to come up with the top-12 that’s listed below. Yet it seems worthwhile to do it to show where the different players rated between the two systems. So, here are the results thru games of 9/2, with B-R numbers on the left and FG ones on the right:

The first thing that should be noted is that B-R puts its players in numerical order, so it’s almost a complete certainty that Carson Benge’s 2.9 is slightly better than Nolan McLean’s 2.9 rWAR. When two players tied for the same fWAR, they are listed in alphabetical order here. Francisco Lindor may or may not have a higher fWAR than Christian Scott. But that’s splitting hairs.

The two systems agree on the club’s top three players this year – Benge, McLean and Juan Soto. After that, there’s a fair amount of disagreement on the order, even if the relative numbers are pretty close to one another. For example, Luis Torrens is ninth in rWAR with a 1.8 mark, while he’s fifth in fWAR with a 1.9 total. Both systems see him nearly identical – it’s just that his ranking depends on how the two systems sees the other players on the team.

So, let’s take a look at those players with a difference of at least 0.5 WAR between the two systems:

A.J. Ewing (2.2 rWAR, 1.2 fWAR) – This is the one that jumps out to me. Ewing started the season in the minors, got off to a great start in the majors and now has been sub-Acunan in his last 204 PA. That doesn’t seem like the profile of a 2.2 WAR player to me. Without going into the weeds of how both systems arrive at their numbers, my guess is that B-R is much-more bullish on Ewing’s defense. To me, fWAR seems like the better number.

Clay Holmes (1.9 rWAR, 1.2 fWAR) – Over the past two years, Holmes has been appreciably worse in FIP than he’s been in ERA. Previously, when he worked as a reliever, his numbers were much closer to one another. Has Holmes established a long enough track record of out-performing his FIP as a starter? Those pitchers exist – although they are few and far between - and Holmes may very well be one of them. I believe that he can consistently beat his FIP. Maybe that’s homerism on my part. Regardless, my lean is toward taking his rWAR in this case.

Luke Weaver (1.9 rWAR, 1.1 fWAR) – No one can argue that Weaver was anything less than outstanding for the Mets. But, unlike Holmes, there’s been no recent change in role and no pattern of beating his FIP. This year for the Mets, he had a 1.84 ERA and a 2.82 FIP. Since joining the Pirates, he has a 6.48 ERA and a 2.14 FIP. If you paid attention to his FIP, you knew regression was coming. Give me fWAR here.

Zac Thornton (1.8 rWAR, 0.9 fWAR) – He’s been incredibly fun to watch pitch with the way that he attacks hitters and – for the most part – limits both walks and homers. Can he keep it up? Anyone who claims to know the answer after 11 starts is kidding themselves. It seems reasonable to me today not to trust either system. But let’s hope rWAR is right.

Huascar Brazoban (1.5 rWAR, 0.9 fWAR) – You can pretty much cut-and-past the Weaver comment here. The one difference is that since the trade, Brazoban’s ERA and FIP are both in the 6s. It still feels like the Mets didn’t get enough in return for him.

Jared Young (1.5 rWAR, 0.8 fWAR) – Keith Hernandez seems to believe that Young’s defense at first base is somewhere between decent and good, a take that seems more in line with how B-R views it. Is Hernandez being supportive of Young because he believes in him? He talks about conversations with him, so the two may have a rapport that Hernandez doesn’t have with other players on the team. I’d still lean with fWAR but have no problem with someone taking B-R’s view here, instead.

Brooks Raley (1.5 rWAR, 0.8 fWAR) – You’ll be hard-pressed to find a bigger Raley supporter than me. Still, this is the same story with the other relievers on this list. After the trade, Raley has a 3.52 ERA and a 4.79 FIP. He’s been unable to maintain the sub-2.00 ERA he had with the Mets.

Bo Bichette (0.8 rWAR, 1.6 fWAR) – While the two fielding systems see Bichette as the same guy defensively when he played SS – both at (-2) – they see him differently at 3B. DRS has him at (-5) while FRV has him at 0. My opinion is that Bichette has gotten better at third base as the season’s progressed and there’s no cringing when a ball is hit in his direction. My call is for fWAR.

Freddy Peralta ((-0.3) rWAR, 1.2 fWAR) – No one is claiming that Peralta had the results with the Mets that we hoped for when they traded for him. It’s just that the results didn’t match his peripherals. It’s difficult for me to fully embrace the fWAR number. Maybe 60% fWAR, 40% rWAR?

Francisco Alvarez (0.2 rWAR, 1.1 fWAR) – A player who posts a 0 WAR (regardless of system) is one that you should basically be able to get for free, either a minor leaguer you call up from your system, or a guy you can easily trade for, without giving up something worthwhile. I’m as frustrated as anyone with Alvarez’ ABs here recently. But do you really think you could just plug in any catcher and basically match what Alvarez gives you, both offensively and defensively combined? I don’t and that’s what B-R is essentially saying here.

*****

ERA is a good stat but even its strongest proponents would note how wildly it can fluctuate. To be clear, B-R uses Runs Allowed (RA), not ERA, in its WAR calculation. But, for the most part, RA is much closer to ERA than it is to FIP. And since neither B-R nor FG directly publishes RA, ERA is used as a proxy here.

It comes down to: What do you want from a statistic? Do you only want what’s actually happened? That’s a perfectly reasonable response. If so, then rWAR may be right for you. But if a pitcher plays in front of a bad/great defense or has poor/great luck with sequencing or poor/great luck with his strand rate – then ERA/RA is not accurately reflecting how well he pitched.

Do you want to hold things outside of his control against a pitcher? That doesn’t appeal to me and it’s the reason my preference is for FIP. Neither way is without problems. My opinion is that you get fewer problems using FIP as your main input than RA. When the Cubs traded for David Peterson, they explicitly said that their defense would help him to better results. In 68 innings with the Mets, Peterson’s ERA was 2.24 runs higher than his FIP. In 59 IP with the Cubs, Peterson’s ERA is 0.04 runs higher than his FIP.

It’s almost never just one thing. In Peterson’s case, in addition to better defense, he also has a strand rate 12.6% better since joining the Cubs and his BABIP is 53 points lower. It’s reasonable to assume that all three things are both interacting and working together for his better results with the Cubs. Both xERA and xFIP show Peterson pitching identically in New York and Chicago. But his ERA is 1.51 runs better since the trade. Peterson’s ERA was not accurately reflecting how well he pitched for the Mets.

Brett Baty and Nick Morabito each had three-run doubles to lead the Mets to a 9-4 win over the Rays Wednesday night in Tampa. The victory gave the Mets the series win, snapping a stretch of three-straight losing series.

Baty came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the third. He drilled the ball the opposite way, hitting off the top of the wall. Baty’s hit gave the Mets a 6-0 lead.

Justin Hagenman made the start and retired the first eight batters he faced. He left after the third inning with the Mets up, 6-1.

Chris Devenski replaced Hagenman and was the victim of some bad luck. He picked off the runner on the third disengagement. But the runner evaded the tag by Jared Young, got back to first safely and was awarded second on a balk. Next batter singles him home and takes second when the throw from Carson Benge hits the bat. The next batter homers to cut the lead to 6-4.

In the seventh inning, the Mets had the bases loaded with one out. A.J. Ewing struck out, bringing Morabito to the plate. He entered the game the previous inning as a pinch-runner and took over for Baty in left field. Morabito hit a ball just inside the foul line, scoring all three runners. It was Morabito’s first hit in the majors.

If that wasn’t enough, Morabito made a diving catch to end the eighth inning and then he drilled a single up the middle to end the night 2-2.

Juan Soto capped the scoring with a solo homer, a line drive that got out of the park in milliseconds. The Rays had been challenging Soto with fastballs all series. They were having success with pitches high and outside the zone. This one was lower and Soto turned on it for his 23^rd home run of the year.

The Mets’ pen closed with 5.1 scoreless innings, with Dedniel Nunez getting the win.

After an off day on Thursday, the Mets return home to host the Giants in a weekend series. Nolan McLean gets the ball Friday night for the 7:10 p.m. start.

The season can’t end soon enough for A.J. Ewing. Early on the day of 8/24, here’s what I wrote about our young center fielder:

The pertinent question is if that’s more risk than Ewing being ready to play 150 games and being productive. Because right now, in his last 37 games, Ewing is sub-Acunan and looks borderline unplayable.

In the eight games since then, Ewing has been even worse, slashing .167/.219/.200 in 33 PA. Combine this with the 37 previous games and you get a .505 OPS in 199 PA. If Brett Baty or Mark Vientos did this, fans would be ready to DFA them. If Marcus Semien did this, you’d hear me shouting from the rooftops that he stinks more than usual.

Yet Ewing does this and the silence is deafening.

With Luis Robert Jr. lost on waivers, there’s going to be more pressure/incentive to play Ewing every day. Both Nick Morabito and Cristian Pache are capable of playing center field. And while neither of these players are likely to be good hitters, they’re a better bet to be semi-productive than Ewing the rest of the season.

If this doesn’t reverse-jinx Ewing into a productive final three weeks then nothing will.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. When Francisco Alvarez catches Sean Manaea coming into this contest, Manaea has a 5.40 ERA and opposing batters have an 847 OPS. So, who was behind the plate Tuesday night? Yep, it was Alvarez. And it was more of the same, as Manaea got knocked around and the Mets fell to the Rays, 6-2,

Staked to a 1-0 lead before he even threw a pitch, Manaea gave the run right back. He gave up another run in the third inning that made it 2-1. It stayed that way thru five innings, as the Rays were just 2-9 with runners in scoring position. But the roof caved in on Manaea in the sixth. The Rays strung together four hits in the inning, including a triple and a homer, to make it 5-1. The Mets went to the pen and Austin Warren stranded a runner at third base.

Manaea finished allowing 11 hits and five runs. Now throwing to Alvarez, Manaea has allowed 55 ER in 89 IP for a 5.56 ERA. If you believe in a higher power, pray to that deity for the Mets to come to their senses and deploy Luis Torrens behind the plate when Manaea pitches next.

Freddy Peralta started for the Rays and the Mets had him on the ropes early. Francisco Lindor homered leading off the game, part of three hits to the first four batters he faced. But Peralta got a strikeout and a fly out to end the inning.

And the Mets never challenged him again.

The only other run the Mets scored came in the seventh inning, when they drew four walks, with Lindor getting the RBI to make it 5-2. Juan Soto had a pitch to hit and just missed it, popping out to end the inning.

After getting three hits in the opening frame, the Mets did not record another one for the rest of the contest. And the four walks they managed in the seventh were the only free passes they worked in the game. It was just a pitiful offensive display.

Dylan Ross made his MLB debut and had a scoreless frame on his birthday. Justin Hagenman was at the game and is slated to start on Wednesday. It will be curious to see if Ross is the one optioned to open up a roster spot.

The Mets will try for the series win at 6:40 p.m.

In a season of disappointments, Freddy Peralta might be the biggest one of all. Brought in to be the guy to start the first playoff game, Peralta instead put up a 4.99 ERA before being dealt at the deadline. He was even worse for the Rays, posting a 7.17 ERA in his first four starts with his new team. Then, in his fifth outing, Peralta turns in his best game of the year, as he allowed just two hits and no runs over six innings, earning a Game Score of 73. Now, he gets ready to face the Mets later tonight.

Many people felt that the Mets overpaid to get Peralta, sending out two top-100 prospects and getting just one year of control for their new ace pitcher. The Mets also got Tobias Myers in the deal, which seemed like a nice throw-in. But Myers has been terrible in the majors, casting doubt on his long-term future with the club. Previously a starter with the Brewers, Myers began the year in the pen, with the thought he would function as a depth starter. He had a 5.23 ERA as a reliever, which looks stellar compared to his 15.43 ERA in three starts.

There was a thought that the Mets might bring Myers back to the majors when rosters expanded in September. But on last night’s broadcast, Gary Cohen said that the club would be promoting Justin Hagenman, instead. It’s not impossible that Myers might return later in September. Yet it seems much more likely that Jonah Tong will be given the next opportunity. In his last four outings, Tong has a 0.84 ERA and as limited batters to a .550 OPS. Meanwhile, Myers has been good in a relief role, with a 1.46 ERA, with two walks and 12 strikeouts, over 12.1 IP in his last five appearances.

Given that Peralta has been bad – and Myers has been worse – it’s surprising to consider that the Mets may have come out on top in their three-way “trade” with their alleged ace.

First, we need to consider how the players they dealt to Milwaukee have fared. Brandon Sproat was supposed to be a plug-and-play fifth starter for the Brewers. And he pretty much was that. The problem was he wasn’t good enough to be in the rotation for a team with World Series aspirations. In 21 games – 19 starts – Sproat posted a 5.27 ERA. He had major trouble with the gopher ball, as he allowed 17 HR in 95.2 IP. He made his last start in the majors in early August. Since the demotion, Sproat has made four starts and has a 4.50 ERA in 16 IP.

Jett Williams came over with a chance to make the majors but instead opened the year back at Triple-A. He struggled at the top level of the minors in 2025, so it wasn’t a big surprise that the Brewers wanted him to ace that level before having him in the majors. Williams got off to a decent start, with an .801 OPS after 45 games. The Brewers even shifted him to third base, where there was an opportunity in the majors.

However, he never got to Milwaukee. He tailed off after that start and then got hurt. Since July 7, he’s played exactly one game. Williams is dealing with an injured wrist and was sent to see a specialist. Earlier in the season, he dealt with an injured quad.

Neither Sproat nor Williams should be written off completely at this point. Yet there’s little doubt that their stock has fallen from where it was when Milwaukee first acquired the duo. Currently in his age-22 season, there’s plenty of time for Williams to rebound. Sproat, in his age-25 campaign, may have less of a runway to a successful MLB career.

It’s easy to look at Peralta’s tenure with the Mets and come away borderline disgusted. Still, while it’s hard to measure, Peralta – however briefly – gave the Mets something. He gave them hope. It’s easy to mock that – and it’s not like it moves the needle very much. Yet it’s not completely insignificant, either. Additionally, Peralta was very solid early on for the Mets, as he had a 3.10 ERA after nine starts. It fell apart after that but you can’t blame Peralta for the miserable start that the club endured the first eight weeks of the season.

Still, if the Mets are going to win this three-way Peralta business, it will be because of the prospects they acquired from the Rays. Regardless of how it ends up, the much-maligned David Stearns should receive credit for the haul he brought in for an under-achieving rental. It was certainly much more than my expectations as the deadline approached.

The Mets received Gary Gill Hill, Emilien Pitre and Aidan Smith for Peralta. Smith was the highest-rated prospect, although Pitre seemed like the player most likely to reach the majors and do something worthwhile.

If nothing else, Gill Hill has an MLB-quality name. And he’s off to a solid start in Double-A, with a 3.63 ERA and 24 Ks in 22.1 IP. Furthermore, the 21 year old has only allowed two walks. He may not have tremendous upside but it wouldn’t be a shock if he made the majors, either.

Pitre is in the mix to one day – hopefully sooner rather than later – replace Marcus Semien as the Mets’ second baseman. He has very little power, with just 3 XBH in 84 PA since the trade. Yet in his time with the Mets, Pitre is batting .342 with a .390 OBP. Overall, in 247 PA in the high minors, he’s slashing .330/.430/.458 for an .888 OPS. At age 23, he should be ready for the majors at some point next year.

Smith was having below-average results for the Rays’ Hi-A affiliate before the trade. He was assigned to Brooklyn, the Mets’ Hi-A affiliate and it’s been a completely different story. In 84 PA with the Cyclones, Smith is slashing .319/.429/.565 for a .994 OPS. Smith has 5 HR for Brooklyn, although it should be noted that all of them have come in road parks. In all, 14 of Smith’s 18 games for the Cyclones have come on the road. He has just a .561 OPS at home.

An outfielder, Smith has played all three spots since joining the Mets, with the majority coming in center field. He’s considered an excellent defender, with plus speed and a strong arm. His future may come down to getting his strikeouts under control. In 353 PA this season, Smith has fanned 107 times, a 30.3 K%. Since joining the Mets, he’s whiffed at a 31.0% rate. It almost feels like a Tyrone Taylor type of player, although Taylor never struck out this much.

If Pitre can be a solid regular, with Smith emerging as a fourth outfielder and Gill Hill contributing as well, that may be more than the Brewers receive from Sproat and Williams. Time will tell. We can say that the emergence of Zac Thornton has more than made up for the loss of Sproat. And the Mets always seemed bearish when it came to Williams, especially in comparison to how they viewed Carson Benge.

It’s possible the Mets sold high on the two prospects they traded for Peralta. Now we wait to see how well they did with the prospects they received when they sent Peralta away. Early results are encouraging. And it will certainly be a feather in Stearns’ cap if he ends up winning the three-way Peralta sweepstakes.

It was opposite day for the Mets Monday night in Tampa Bay, as Robert Stock pitched a strong game and the Mets jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held on for a 3-2 victory over the Rays. It was the Mets’ seventh win in their last nine one-run contests.

Stock cruised thru the first four innings before allowing the first two runners to reach base in the fifth. He then got what looked to be a double-play ball but it was muffed by Francisco Lindor to load the bases. Stock got an infield pop and a strikeout. But it looked like it was going to end badly, as the next batter hit a rope into the gap. But Christopher Morel made a leaping grab to end the inning without a run scored.

The Mets sent Stock our for the sixth but after getting the first out he was removed from the game with two lefty batters due up. Nate Lavender came on to retire the lefties. Stock finished with 5.1 scoreless innings, with no walks and four strikeouts.

Mark Vientos was recalled from the majors after a 3-HR game Sunday in Triple-A. He was inserted into the lineup with a lefty starting. He struck out in his first at-bat and he grounded into a double play in the fourth inning. But in the seventh, Vientos clubbed a homer to left field to make it 2-0 Mets.

If it wasn’t enough for Morel to make a nice defensive play in the fifth inning, he made another one to end the sixth. On an attempted hustle double, Morel fired a strike to second base, nailing the runner by five feet. Morel’s never been considered a good defensive player, adding to our bizarro night.

Continuing with our opposite theme, Francisco Alvarez swung at a pitch in the strike zone and delivered an RBI single to make it 3-0. The Mets had two more opposite things happen. Christian Pache, inserted for defense, delivered his first hit as a Met. And Juan Soto pinch-hit for Alvarez against a LHP, old pal Steven Matz. Soto was 8-17 lifetime against Matz but this time, he struck out on three pitches.

Daniel Duarte gave up two runs in the eighth inning. Chris Devenski got the final out of the eighth before turning things over to Kodai Senga, who surrendered a leadoff walk but finished off the game for his fifth save. That gave the win to Stock, his first in the majors since 2019.

Sean Manaea faces off against Freddy Peralta Tuesday night at 6:40 p.m.

When you bring up Mark Vientos’ name, most people roll their eyes, say he stinks and they declare that the Mets should see if there’s any team that will take him off their hands. They want to end the Vientos experiment, with no regard with how it happens. It’s not hard to understand why the majority of fans feel that way. He didn’t really perform in either 2025 or 2026, with plenty of playing time in the former and a decent amount in the latter.

My opinion falls in the minority. It seems to me that there’s a role for Vientos, both in the remainder of 2026 and 2027, as well. At the bare minimum, Vientos is a short side of a platoon, with his ability versus LHP. It’s possible those could come at 1B or DH. Few want to see him play the field and that’s a very reasonable position. It’s possible he can work on his fielding and improve from bad to below-average. Yet even if the defense doesn’t get much better, Vientos’ calling card will always be his offense.

Against LHP in 2026, Vientos has an .855 OPS in 95 PA. In 2024, he posted an .884 mark in 139 PA. In neither of these years did Vientos play a full season. In ’24, he opened the year in the minors. This season saw him on the bench to start the campaign and then an injury has kept him out for a big chunk of the year. So, if he was on the roster for a full season, with an emphasis on playing versus lefties, he could get 200 PA. That’s not a giant role but it’s not nothing, either. By the end of 2026, 12 players on the Mets will reach that level of playing time.

In this week’s Open Thread, reader 1999 asked the following question:

What are some of the leading theories on what happened to Vientos? Looking through his advance batting on B-R I’m not seeing alot to distinguish the last two years from 2024. All I can see is that he’s hitting alot more to RF and alot more fly balls instead of line drives. Perhaps its a timing issue?

That prompted me to look deeper into Vientos’ results here in 2026. And the answer was surprising. Vientos has been absolutely brutal with his hitting to right field. Here are spray charts with his hits, both in his successful 2024 campaign and his ugly 2026:

In 2024, Vientos had 12 XBH to the right side of the second-base bag, including 10 HR. This year he has just one, a double. And the culprit in that is the distance traveled by the balls that Vientos hits to the opposite field. In 2024, with all balls hit the opposite way (not just actual hits) – Vientos had 17 balls hit with a distance of at least 300 feet, including 11 that traveled at least 350 feet. This year he has two balls hit to the opposite field that traveled that far and they went 325 and 312 feet.

Baseball-Reference has Vientos with a 1.104 OPS on balls hit to the opposite field in his big year of 2024. Even in his down season in 2025, he notched a 1.213 OPS on balls hit to RF. This year, Vientos has a .546 OPS on balls hit the opposite way. And it’s a similar story on balls hit up the middle, with a 1.033 OPS in ’24 and a .515 mark this year.

When he’s pulled the ball this year, Vientos has had the best results of his career, with a 1.714 OPS.

But that hasn’t been enough to propel him to a good offensive season. In order to succeed, Vientos needs better results going to right field. My opinion is if things improve when he goes to the opposite field, they’ll also improve when he goes up the middle. Which is why his three-homer game in Syracuse on Sunday was so encouraging. Go to SNY and look at his first and third home runs:

https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/KVJZMHFa

As you saw, two of his three homers went to right field. That doesn’t mean that everything is now magically fixed for Vientos. But you have to start somewhere and hitting two home runs to the opposite field is an excellent place to begin the journey back to relevance.

Rosters expand in September for MLB clubs, who are allowed to carry one extra position player and one extra pitcher. Vientos seems like an excellent candidate to be the hitter to call up to the majors. If and when he’s back with the Mets, Vientos has another chore to accomplish besides hitting the ball to right field with authority, although it’s likely that they’re related.

In 2024, Vientos had an 11.4 Run Value on four-seam fastballs. This year, he recorded a (-2.4) rate on heaters. The decline is pretty much across the board but, by far, the biggest drop has been against fastballs. If you want to have success in the majors, you’ve got to be able to handle premium velocity. It’s not a matter of bat speed, as Vientos’ bat tracking numbers via Statcast are all better now than in 2024.

It’s just the quality of his contact has been way down.

Sunday’s game started with a bang, for both teams, but ended in a whimper for the home team, as the Houston Astros took the series against the New York Mets, 6-3.

Both the Houston Astros and the New York Mets had lead off home runs in their respective half-innings (Jeremy Peña for Houston, then Francisco Lindor for New York). Then there was some back-to-back action Juan Soto launched a rocket, to go ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first.

After Bo Bichette got a hit in that same inning, Mets’ bats remained largely silent until the fifth inning, as the Astros managed to tie the game again in the top of the second.

The fifth inning capped off the Mets’ scoring, as AJ. Ewing, after stealing second, and advancing to third on a throwing error, scored on a double play hit into by Luis Torrens.

Zac Thornton had an objectively decent start, going five innings, giving up two runs, while striking out five.

After relieving Thornton in the sixth inning, Jonathan Pintaro gave up a pinch hit two run home run to LaMonte Wade, Jr. The Astros did not relinquish the lead, scoring two more runs on a throwing error by Mets first baseman, Jared Young.

Bright spots for the game? Triple crown threat Yordan Alvarez’ bat was largely silent, going 0-for-five today. Ewing later managed to break out of his hitting funk by getting a base hit off closer Josh Hader in the bottom of the ninth.

In other news, with September call-ups right around the corner, the Syracuse Mets (led by Mark Vientos’ bat, who hit three home runs) pitched a combined no-hitter earlier today. On Saturday, Jonah Tong pitched a one-hitter in his win for the triple-A team.

Robert Stock starts tomorrow against Ian Seymour in St. Petersburg, as the Mets begin a three game series against the first place in the AL East Tampa Bay Rays.

Please remember to join the Mets360 game chatter in Substack!

Jeremy Pena led off the game by jumping a fastball down the pipe and rocketing it down the left field line. As LF Brett Baty played hackie sack with the ball (Astros announcer’s description), Pena raced to third base. The next hitter was Yordani Alvarez and he hit a low curve to the warning track in right field to score Pena and it was 1-0 just like that.

But, the Mets came right back and evened the score in their half of the inning when Francisco Lindor walked, went to second on a balk and after a Carson Benge walk, Lindor scored on a two out knock by Jared Young.

For the next few innings base runners were rare, but in the fifth inning the Mets were done toying with the Astros. After Francisco Alvarez struck out again, Lindor hit a long fly that RF Taylor Trammell tracked to the wall but lost it in the sun and the ball passed under his glove and hit his left bicep, landing on the track for a double. Juan Soto then whacked a base hit to right field bringing Lindor in and giving the Mets the lead. After Bichette flied out and Benge singled, Young came through again with another two out clutch hit scoring both Soto and Benge with a triple. Young was stranded at second by Marcus Semien but McLean had something he hasn’t had much this year: a lead.

McLean was strong for seven innings and Daniel Durante relieved him in the eighth. Durante would have been perfect but Yordani Alvarez does “Yordani Alvarez things” and hit a solo HR way deep to right center to take back the AL RBI lead and cut the lead in half to 4-2.

But, the Mets put two on to start the eighth and AJ Ewing sacrificed them both into scoring position. Pinch hitter Luis Robert Jr took a lame cut at an outside pitch and popped up to third base for the second out. That must have been the last straw for David Stearns because following the game, reports came out that Robert Jr was put on irrevocable waivers. With two outs, Francisco Alvarez hit a long double off the left center field wall bringing in both runners and stretching the lead to 6-2. Senga locked down a perfect ninth to finish the victory.

The most satisfying aspect of this game had to be McLean’s pitching, going seven innings with no earned runs and just two hits. A very close second had to be the five runs driven in with two outs. Good teams find a way to be successful and the Mets need to do that consistently as they prepare for next year.

Also tonight, Jonah Tong in Syracuse came within two strikes of throwing a no hitter with just two walks and eight strike outs.

The game was scoreless through the first three innings and Brown already had five strikeouts on his way to ten for the night. While Scott didn’t have any yet, he did get the benefit of the first run of the game when Francisco Lindor singled and Carson Benge hit a booming double off the right centerfield wall to chase Lindor home. The Mets had another chance to score in the next inning but Brown got Ewing to hit into only his second double play this year to escape a first and third situation. That was their last real chance to score as they only base runner was due to a Marcus Semien single in their last four innings.

Scott was cruising through five innings and he started the sixth by striking out Jeremy Peña on three pitches. However, for whatever reason, he lost the strike zone after that. Three straight walks, with some pitches being way out of the strike zone, brought Nate Lavender into the game to face Daulton Varsho. Lavender had not allowed any runs whether inherited runners or his own runners since he came up from the minors. But tonight, he wasn’t as lucky.

Varsho hit a pitch that would’ve bounced on the plate into right field for a two run single. The next batter, Yanier Diaz, poked an outside pitch through the big hole on the right side of the infield into right field to bring in the third run of the inning.

The Astros had one more good scoring chance but with men in first and second and one out in the top of the seventh inning, Isaac Paredes hit a one hop rocket down the third base line that Bo Bichette backhanded and started a double play to end the Astros’ last scoring threat.

When you enter the season as a co-favorite for the division title and instead sit 14 games below .500 near the end of August, clearly a lot of things have gone wrong. Some of these are easy to understand. Everyone knows about the injuries to the hitters. We all recognize that most of the starting pitchers that opened the season flopped. It’s no secret that most of the good relievers were traded. But what about the things that have gone wrong, are somewhat correctable yet seemingly never addressed? Here are things that make me scratch my chin:

Francisco Alvarez consistently swings at pitches either high out of the strike zone or low and away. What’s being done about this? Ronny Mauricio can’t hit a breaking ball low out of the strike zone and is banished to Syracuse and nothing he does there seems to make a difference. This is not to suggest that Alvarez should be sent to the minors. But one thing that’s incredibly easy for a manager to control is playing time. If Alvarez is going to insist at swinging at these pitches – give him a seat on the bench. It should be easier than normal to do that, with Luis Torrens in a nice hitting stretch. Alvarez will still get playing time. But make it known that until his swing decisions improve, his playing time will be minimal.

Marcus Semien is winding down a career that 95% of MLB players would kill to have. But the memories of what he was in the past shouldn’t guarantee him playing time either in the present or the future. Yes, he’s owed a ton of money. But that’s no justification for playing him, especially with the game’s richest owner in charge. It’s not an awful decision to treat a decorated veteran with respect. My opinion is that giving a guy with a 73 OPS+ 445 PA is more than enough respect. Mauricio should be getting reps at 2B right now. Brett Baty – who’s been every bit as bad as Semien – offers youth, at the very least. Shoot, I’d rather play Christopher Morel there to see if he can rediscover his power from a few years ago. The team’s mantra should be – anyone but Semien.

A.J. Ewing came up before he should have and performed admirably under difficult circumstances. Yet the more he plays, the more exposed he is. Ewing had an OPS of .812 after his two-hit game on July 8. Since then, in 40 games and 179 PA, he’s slashing .198/.258/.247 for a .505 OPS. This is not a two-week slump. Ewing has fanned 50 times in those 179 PA – a 27.9 K%. And he has just 8 XBH in this span – all doubles. He’s been worse than Semien offensively for six-plus weeks. It’s difficult to imagine a more-damning statement than that one. Unfortunately, like Semien, he plays every day. Maybe you can justify it by saying that in this lost season that you give the kids every chance. But just like you don’t leave in a reliever who’s throwing beach balls to the plate, you don’t leave in a hitter getting abused to the extent Ewing is here right now.

Robert Stock was given starts because no one else was deemed ready. In five games, he has a 7.40 ERA and every indication is that he’s going to get a sixth start. Jonah Tong has a 6.28 ERA in the majors and he’s deemed not ready. Much like with Semien/Baty – there’s no reason to give playing time in a lost season to a veteran not getting results. It’s even worse with Stock because he has no track record of success in the majors. Stock got a shot – I’d rather give a shot to someone else, whether that’s a top prospect like Tong or a career minor leaguer like Jack Weisenburger. Yes, Weisenburger pitched out of the pen when he was in the majors earlier. But 12 of his 15 appearances for Syracuse have been as a SP. It’s not a belief that Weisenburger is significantly better than Stock. It’s just that what Stock offers isn’t good enough and maybe there’s a chance Weisenburger can shock us. I’d rather see Tong or Jack Wenninger. We can borrow the mantra for Semien and apply it here, too.

Finally, stop pairing Alvarez with Sean Manaea.

<Yawn>

Believe it or not, the most noteworthy aspect of the game was that Jacob Misiorowski didn’t have the best start. The Citi Field mound seemed to give him troubles early on, and he gave up two runs in six innings. That means his ERA goes up.

To 1.73. But still. His record goes to 14-5 on the year.

Jackson Chourio also got three key hits against Mets starter Sean Manaea (whose record is now 4-6), who had yet another lackluster start, including a home run that sealed Milwaukee’s fate (and Misiorowski’s win) in the second inning. Oh, and Chourio hit two total home runs, the second one coming off Xzavion Curry in the 8th inning. Chourio went four-for-five in tonight’s game.

Jared Young and Christopher Morel each drove in the two Mets runs tonight.

At least the Mets didn’t prolong the agony by making things interesting in the 9th.

Next game is tomorrow (Friday August 28) against the Houston Astros, who come to Citi Field for a three game series.

Matt Harvey had a terrific debut season where he made 10 starts back in 2012. After that, we did comparisons to Harvey with both Zack Wheeler and Jacob deGrom after they made 10 starts. Zac Thornton just made his 10^th start, so it seems like a good time to wipe off the Harvey comparison. And while we’re at it, let’s include Nolan McLean and Christian Scott, too. Both of those hurlers have surpassed 10 starts at this point. But our comparison will only include what they did in those first 10.

One of these things is not like the others. Scott pitched more than I recalled in 2024 and while my thought was that some of those appearances were in relief, all nine games he pitched in were starts. Furthermore, Scott was hurt by his 10^th start only going for four outs. Beyond his first 10 starts, Scott has had trouble giving length in his outings. We’ll see what happens next season, when he’s a year further out from surgery. Hopefully he’ll go deeper into outings then. If not, the Mets may need to consider using him as a reliever, especially if any of the hurlers in Triple-A take a step forward.

It’s not a surprise to anyone that McLean fits in so well with the star pitchers from the last decade. Perhaps it’s a touch surprising that he’s the best of the bunch. His debut in 2025 was electric and the scary thing to think about is that his final start of last season was a real outlier. How would his line look without that 5.1 IP, 5 ER outing? Beyond his first 10 starts, McLean stumbled in back-to-back outings, when he gave up 13 ER in 9 IP. Since then, he has a 2.37 ERA in 87.1 IP. We’ll need to see McLean deliver results over a longer stretch of time. Yet if he does that for a full season in ’27 – we may have to consider putting him into deGrom territory.

Which brings us to Thornton.

Did anyone think after his first appearance that 10 starts into his career that you could stack his numbers up with deGrom, Harvey, McLean and Wheeler and - strikeouts excluded - that they would fit right in? Ignoring Scott, here’s how Thornton rates among the other five pitchers in the table thru 10 starts:

Innings – Fifth but just 3.1 IP behind the leader
Wins – Second
Hits – Tied for third
Runs – Tied for second
ER – Tied for second
HR – Fourth
Walks – First
Strikeouts – Fifth
WHIP – Third
BABIP – Fourth

The innings surprise me. It’s far enough away from when deGrom, Harvey and Wheeler debuted that the expectations for starters today is different. Yet both McLean and Thornton are right there in innings. That seems like a great sign for both of them.

There’s a belief that Thornton is doing this with smoke and mirrors, a thought buttressed by his 3.85 FIP, nearly a run higher than his ERA. Due to his low strikeout rate, it’s always going to be a challenge for Thornton to post a great FIP. For both his ERA and FIP, it’s paramount that Thornton control both his walks and his HR allowed. He’s done a great job with walks.

My take is how well Thornton limits the gopher ball is going to be what determines his success going forward. He’s done a good job here, with a 0.96 HR/9, compared to an MLB rate of 1.16 this year. Still, it feels like he could do a bit better in this department. Thornton has given up a home run in five of his 10 starts. Compare that to McLean, who’s surrendered a gopher ball in nine of his 26 starts. Additionally, Scott has seen the ball leave the park in just six of his 19 starts.

Still, we have to come back to strikeouts. Many people believe that there’s too much of an emphasis on strikeouts in the selection of pitchers currently. But there’s a reason that teams prefer the strikeout pitchers over the ones who pitch to contact.

Last year, 10 of the 52 pitchers who qualified for the Leaderboards had a K/9 rate lower than 7.0 for the season. And seven of those 10 had an ERA of 4.45 or greater, with three of those pitchers with an ERA over 5.00 for the year. Meanwhile, the 10 with the highest K/9 had nine pitchers with an ERA below 4.45, with five of those nine with an ERA of 2.70 or better.

The exceptions among the low-K/9 group last season were Michael Wacha (3.86 ERA), Zack Littell (3.81) and Brayan Bello (3.35). This year, Bello has a 4.68 ERA and Littell has a 5.21 mark. It’s hard to have success with a low K/9 rate and it’s even harder to maintain it over multiple seasons.

If we look at a longer stretch, the results are not encouraging for the low-K/9 group. From 2023-2025, 102 pitchers qualified for the leaderboards. There were 16 pitchers who posted a K/9 lower than 7.0 and only one of them had an ERA in the threes, with old pal Jose Quintana notching a 3.79 ERA. There were nine pitchers with an ERA in the fours and six with an ERA in the fives. The top 16 in K/9 had 13 pitchers with an ERA below 4.00 – seven with an ERA in the threes, five with an ERA in the twos and Paul Skenes with a 1.96 ERA.

In Bull Durham, Crash told Nuke, “Don’t try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls - it’s more democratic.” Pitching to contact is a very romantic idea, one championed in a very romantic movie. It’s easy to be romantic in a 1:48 movie. It can also be easy to be romantic in a 2:30 game. Thornton’s pitch to contact has been solid or better in six games where he’s posted a Game Score of 53 and above. But can he keep that “romance” at a high level over 30+ starts, year after year after year?

To be clear, I really enjoy watching Thornton pitch and anyone who’s been unimpressed with what he’s done so far is not a bright person. Still, we can have our head in the clouds while maintaining at least one foot firmly on the ground. It’s remarkable to see how Thornton stacks up after 10 games with deGrom, Harvey, McLean and Wheeler. But his 6.39 K/9 makes it unlikely for him to be as good when the sample hits 100 games.

The Brewers put together six straight hits in the second inning to score four runs and congratulations if you turned the game off at that point. It never got better and the end result was an 8-1 loss Wednesday night at Citi Field.

Robert Stock started for the Mets and I just don’t get it. There’s nothing to be gained by giving innings to a 36 year old with no future with the club yet that’s what the Mets are doing. Stock has given the club some games which were borderline acceptable, like 4.1 IP with 1 ER. That’s the ceiling with him. And today we saw the floor. He allowed 7 ER in 4 IP and it could easily have been worse.

“And here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out
Going through all these things twice”

We’ve gone thru five games with Stock now and he has a 7.40 ERA in 20.2 IP. That’s neither quality nor quantity.’

Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde once penned that he liked, “men with a future and women with a past.” Stock has no future and if we’re being honest, he doesn’t have much of a past, either, regardless of his gender.

During the game, the booth broke out the baseball cards, a surefire way to waste some time in a lopsided game. My guess is they have these ready to go anytime Stock pitches. I love baseball cards but my strong preference would be not to employ a pitcher who’s going to be so bad that talking about Sixto Lezcano is a better alternative to the game.

The first thing I said in the Game Chatter was that I looked forward to Zac Thornton starts and dreaded the ones by Stock. I’d rather Jonah Tong give up gopher balls or Jack Wenninger walk the park than see another start by Stock. If I’m being completely honest, I’d rather see Luis Torrens take the mound than Stock.

Stock is like a charm-less Rich Hill, except that when he was 36, Hill was going 12-5 with a 2.12 ERA. Stock’s similarity – hoping to go 5 IP – is to the 43-year-old version of Hill.

Brett Baty and Marcus Semien had two hits apiece. How nice of the stiffs to step up when a fellow stiff is pitching. It prompts another Dylan line:

“Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks
When you’re trying to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded though we’re all doing our best to deny it”

Pitching Stock today leads to the unfortunate task of trying to win the series while facing CY Award frontrunner Jacob Misiorowski on Thursday. Sean Manaea drew the short stick and takes the ball for the 7:10 p.m. start.

On Tuesday night, Mark Vientos started at first base for Syracuse, came up three times and struck out twice. His spot in the order came up once more but they pinch-hit trade-deadline acquisition Billy Amick for him. Amick struck out, too. In 77 PA since joining the Mets, Amick has fanned 30 times. That rounds to a 39.0 K%. That’s even worse than the 38.1 K% of Ryan Clifford.

If minor league pitchers are piling up the strikeouts against you - what are MLB pitchers going to do? It won’t be pretty, if the big-whiff players ever get that chance.

Here are the players in the upper level of the minors last year who qualified for the leaderboards with a 30.0 or greater K%:

International League

34.3% - Milan Tolentino
34.1% - Carson Williams
34.1% - Bobby Dalbec
33.8% - Nick Schnell
33.8% - Carson McCusker
33.0% - Edwin Rios
31.6% - Jud Fabian
31.5% - Luke Ritter
31.4% - Oliver Dunn
30.3% - Yohandy Morales

My guess is you’ve only heard of two of these players. Dalbec had a six-year career in the majors where he fanned 390 times in 1,065 PA from 2020-2025. That’s a 36.6 K%. Ritter was a Mets’ farmhand for a number of years before being released by the club earlier this year without making the majors.

Williams was a former first-round pick who has played in the majors this year. In 40 PA, he had a 32.5 K% and posted a (-3) wRC+ and a (-0.5) fWAR. Dunn was in the majors for 12 PA this year and went 1-11 with 3 Ks.

Pacific Coast League

30.9% - Niko Kavadas
30.6% - Marco Luciano
30.3% - Collin Price

Price appeared in 7 G and made 13 PA in the majors this year. He struck out six times.

Eastern League

33.0% - Carlos De La Cruz
31.7% - Thayron Liranzo
31.6% - Adam Retzbach
31.6% - Tyler Hardman

Southern League

35.0% - Jaylen Palmer
34.9% - Pablo Aliendo
31.1% - DJ Gladney

Palmer was a former Mets prospect but put up this K-rate with the Cubs. Palmer was back in the Mets’ org this year, where he posted a 35.9 K% in 153 PA with Binghamton.

Texas League

31.5% - Caleb Cali
30.6% - Chris Newell
30.3% - Josh Hood
30.1% - Luke Mann

*****

Perhaps we shouldn’t make any sweeping judgments over one year’s worth of data. But there’s nothing here that should give anyone comfort that a player with an ultra-high K% in the high minors can be a useful MLB player.

Amick did better with strikeouts before the trade. But overall this season, he has a 30.1 K% in 455 PA.

Francisco Lindor had his fingerprints all over this game, including scoring the game-winning run in the 10^th inning, as the Mets edged the Brewers, 3-2, Tuesday night at Citi Field. The Mets are now 13-6 since the trade deadline and are 10-7 in extra-inning games.

Lindor tied the game in the fifth inning with a solo homer. The blast moved Lindor into a tie for sixth place on the squad’s all-time HR list, as he and Dave Kingman now have 154 homers as a Met.

The Mets took a 2-1 lead into the ninth inning but the Brewers tied the game and had the bases loaded. It looked like Milwaukee was going to take a two-run lead with a line drive. But Lindor made a leaping grab to end the inning.

Lindor had a two-out hit in the ninth inning but got picked off first base to send the game into extra innings.

After Jonathan Pintaro and his 97 mph fastball kept the Brewers from scoring in the top of the 10^th inning, Lindor was the zombie runner at second base to start the bottom of the frame. Carson Benge, who had three hits, was intentionally walked to set up the double play. Luis Robert Jr., who homered to give the Mets a 2-1 lead leading off the sixth, walked to load the bases.

Christopher Morel came up and hit the ball to the third baseman, who chose to come home with the ball instead of trying for an inning-ending DP with a slow runner in Morel. But he threw wildly, allowing Lindor to score the winning run.

Zac Thornton started and was once again very good. He allowed 1 ER over 6 IP. After 10 starts, Thornton has a 2.88 ERA. He did not allow a walk and struck out four.

Robert Stock takes the bump as the series continues Wednesday night at 7:10 p.m.

The Mets have hit the end of the season running and their minor league hitters are looking very strong to end the year. Before I get into the Top 50 I want to highlight several players who have had themselves a resplendent month of August.

Billy Amick, 1B (AAA): On the year, Amick boasts a .845 OPS between AA and now a handful of AAA games (he was recently promoted to Syracuse). If you look at July and August, his OPS has climbed above .950 for both of those months. Now, he does have 137 Ks in only 103 games played, but those numbers aren’t terrible compared to other sluggers. In my mind, he is now competing with Jacob Reimer to be the top 1B prospect in the organization.

Elian Peña, SS (A+): Things have not been great for him since his promotion but I want to highlight that the Mets have this 18-year-old prospect playing for the Brooklyn Cyclones and his numbers in Low A (where he’s still younger than most of his competitors) was taking off in the Month of August.

Mitch Voit, SS/2B (AA): Was Voit recently hurt? Minor injuries in the minors are rarely publicized. Voit returned to play last night to continue his truly monumental debut in AA where he has a 1.149 OPS for the month.

Corey Collins, 1B/OF (AA): The former 6th round pick has really broken out in 2026 and after finally earning his way out of Advanced A with a strong June, he’s proven to have the bat scouts had hinted at on draft day. Collins has an interesting mix of power and patience and has been one of the stronger bats for the resurgent Rumble Ponies.

Aidan Smith, OF (A+): Not to be ignored, Smith also got promoted to Advanced A with Peña. He, on the other hand, has really hit pretty well since hitting Brooklyn and should be in Binghamton early in 2027. The concern on him is his strikeouts.

Chris Suero, C/CF (AA): The only Catcher/Center Fielder you are ever likely to meet. Suero has picked up steam in August. His OPS is over .800 on the month and his strikeout rate is down. He’s likely ready for AAA.

Kevin Parada, C (AA): While we are talking about AA catchers, let’s mention Parada. In the month of August his OPS is 1.172 and he’s begging for another shot at AAA. He’s 25 years old now and has been to AAA before but he lingers on the Top 50 regardless.

The list below is not going to have a ton of in-depth analysis on each player but will have a sentence or so about where each player was to start the year and where they are now.

Top 50 Prospects:

1. Jefferson Rojas, IF - The player returned for a package of Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor. He was the #2 prospect with the Chicago Cubs before coming to New York.

2. Elian Peña, SS - I had Peña ranked 5th to start the season and three players who had been North of his ranking graduated off the list, so this is exactly where you want to see him land.

3. Mitch Voit, 2B - I had Voit ranked at 14th to start the season and while I’d hoped for his breakout I wasn’t convinced it was coming. An impressive June in Brooklyn earned him a promotion to AA and there, he’s been very successful so far.

4. Daviel Hurtado, LHP - Few rankings are as high on Hurtado as I am. He began the season ranked 10th and places liked MLB.com still rank him 25th.

5. Wandy Asigen, SS - Began 2026 ranked 16th and ends it in the Top 5. That’s a better finish than Peña. I hope he also gets to start the next season in High A like Peña too.

6. Sammy Stafura, SS - The prospect returned for Luke Weaver. Fans are still salty to see Weaver go but I think that Stafura at least has a chance to make that deal look very good for New York.

7. Émilien Pitre, 2B - Recently promoted to AAA, he was part of the package the Rays sent back for Freddy Peralta. He is an on base machine and the Mets should swap out Marcus Semien for him as soon as they can.

8. Jonathan Santucci, LHP - Santucci started the year ranked 9th and has seen some players ahead of him graduate and fade but has also been held in place by the prospects brought in at the deadline.

9. Yovanny Rodriguez, C - Started the season at 15th overall, he has cooled off since his promotion to High A.

10. Christopher Suero, C - Another player who hasn’t moved much. He began the season ranked 11th and has played well enough to more or less stay there.

11. Randy Guzman, OF - He began 2026 ranked 28th but he was too powerful to stay in High A and has hit his way to the hitter’s nightmare known as Brooklyn.

12. Zac Thornton, LHP - Had ranked in at 21st overall to start the year he could rank higher now but is also about to graduate off the rankings.

13. Carson Wiggins, RHP - 2026 draft pick with great raw stuff. Both myself and MLB.com ranks him 13th overall. Hopefully he pitches in 2027.

14. Jacob Reimer, 3B/1B - He started the year at #6 overall and fell because of injury. He’s back in the lineup and hitting but the new faces are outshining him a little.

15. Aiden Robbins, OF - The Mets drafted Robbins with their second pick, but he was ranked higher than Wiggins.

16. Jonah Tong, RHP - He began the year ranked 3rd and has fallen significantly. He now looks like he’d be best served by becoming a reliever.

17. Billy Amick, 1B - The primary part of the package that the Mets got for A.J. Minter at the deadline. Amick has looked very good for the Rumble Ponies and is notably ranked higher than Ryan Clifford.

18. Aidan Smith, OF - A player I wasn’t terribly excited about from the Peralta deal, Smith has performed in Brooklyn and looks like a solid outfield prospect.

19. Cleiner Ramirez, OF - Definitely still in the echelon of lottery ticket, he began the year ranked 26th overall. He has done plenty to move up the several positions he has.

20. Daiverson Gutierrez, C - Beware Brooklyn’s effect on hitting. Gutierrez is one of the best hitters in that lineup despite his poor numbers. He’s dropped a bit from 17th but will hopefully be in Binghamton next season.

21. Shane Sdao, LHP - 2026 draft pick. He hasn’t pitched in the minors as of yet.

22. Jake Wenninger, RHP - I ranked Wenninger too low before the season, at 40th overall and some will say he’s still too low at 22nd. I just don’t see him succeeding at the major league (for long) level with what he offers.

23. John Spikerman, OF - Part of the package for Brooks Raley and ultimately the worst deadline deal the Mets made. Spikerman has speed but little power and a love for striking out.

24. Vladi Gomez, OF - He wasn’t listed in my old rankings and seems like Top 50 middling fodder but he hasn’t been half bad for Port St. Lucie.

25. Luke McNeillie, RHP - Mets drafted him in the 5th round and he hasn’t pitched for a minor league game.

26. Gabe Davis, RHP - Acquired from the White Sox for Huascar Brazoban. Davis isn’t far from the majors but doesn’t seem like much of a haul.

27. Ronald Hernandez, C - The switch-hitting catcher has moved up since I ranked him 39th thanks to a strong May and June. He awaits a promotion to Suero or Kevin Parada to be freed from Brooklyn.

28. Gary Gill Hill, RHP - The control pitcher was the last part of the lucrative Freddy Peralta deal. He has some value but has shown a nasty habit of giving up homers.

29. Edward Lantigua, OF - Quite a fall from being ranked 12th overall. He only played in 9 games before going down with a season ending injury.

30. Emilio Obispo, RHP - Previously unranked, he’s earned entry into the Top 30. He pitched his way up from Low A and into High A and seems like he could start 2027 in AA.

31. Roybert Herrerra, 3B - A small jump up from when I ranked him 33rd. He was okay in the FCL but will need to do more in A-ball next season.

32. Bruin Agbayani, OF - The player that most fans assumed was the highlight of the A.J. Minter deal. Agbayani is the son of former fan favorite, Benny Agbayani he doubled his playing time from 2025 by reaching 10 games and that’s not a great sign.

33. Ryan Clifford, OF/1B - I warned that Clifford was likely to fall from his 8th overall ranking and he has. He is a strikeout machine and just doesn’t put bat on ball often enough for his power to matter.

34. Luke Gabrysh, RHP - The other half of the package we got from Philadelphia for Raley, I had ranked him lower but he pitched well in two Brooklyn outings and has already moved up to Binghamton.

35. Corey Collins, 1B/OF - A sneaky pick who hadn’t performed, I had ranked him 49th. He’s performing back up to his sneaky pick projections and might be on the rise.

36. Dylan Ross, RHP - I had ranked him 19th overall but a bad month of May and a worse June has condemned him lower. He has looked better in July and August.

37. Boston Baro, IF - Was ranked 27th and spent almost all year hurt. Could have been dropped lower but when healthy he usually hits.

38. Julio Zayas, C - Was ranked 34th and would have moved up if the Mets hadn’t brought in more talent but Zayas has been only solid and not exceptional in 2026.

39. Eli Serrano III, OF/1B - Began the season ranked 20th and rose higher briefly before coming back to earth. His power surge of April appears to have been a mirage.

40. Zach Franklin, RHP - Relief pitcher the Mets got in the disappointing White Sox deadline deal. Franklin has a homerun problem and doesn’t seem to be more than a depth arm.

41. Cole Mathis, 1B/3B - The player we got for David Peterson, he was supposed to be a good hitter and had looked good in the lower Cubs levels, he has not performed for Advance A and is already too old to be playing there much longer.

42. Jacob Madrid, C - Very sneaky 13th round pick who I am shocked and pleased to see the Mets managed to sign.

43. Kuhio Aloy, OF/DH - Sneaky 11th round pick for the Mets putting on some fine hitting displays in Port St. Lucie.

44. Antonio Jimenez, SS - Had been ranked 31st overall because he was a 3rd round pick. He doesn’t feel like a worthwhile prospect.

45. Colin Houck, SS - Was ranked 25th after signs of life in 2025 but he’s proving to be one of the worst 1st round picks in recent Met history.

46. Zach Crotchfelt, LHP - 14th round pick for the Mets with no minor league stats. Local boy with a bit of buzz.

47. Landon Koenig, RHP - 8th round pick for the Mets with no minor league stats.

48. Ryan Lambert, RHP - Was ranked as high as 18th but injuries and poor outings when healthy have pushed him down.

49. Trey Snyder, SS - He has not earned an upgrade from me ranking him 47th overall with his lackluster showing in Advanced A.

50. Kevin Parada, C - Parada was ranked a lofty 23rd overall before the season, but he’s 25 and back in AA where he remains the second-best catcher on the team.

Ryan Clifford is circling the drain

The Mets have transferred Clifford to the development squad, which is great news for Billy Amick, who will get the lion’s share of the playing time at first base. Clifford has been bad for almost all of 2026 with a sub .700 OPS and over 1.5 strikeouts per game. There was one month this season where he looked like a major league prospect, which was May but he hasn’t managed more than that one peak of performance this season.

One of the themes of this disappointing season is that at least the Mets have developed two starting outfielders that they can count on for the next 10 years in Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing. Benge has been on the team since Opening Day, while injuries and under-performance elsewhere on the club caused the Mets to promote Ewing in mid-May after just 51 PA in Triple-A. There was a time when both were hitting enough to justify the hype. However, right now the two youngsters are heading in opposite directions.

Benge got off to a dismal start. After 30 games and 102 PA, he had just a .498 OPS. After 54 games and 208 PA, Benge checked in with a .634 OPS. But in the 71 games since then, he’s slashing .301/.357/.496 in 308 PA. This is not a brief hot streak. Instead, this is a young player who overcame his struggles and is now producing at an All-Star level.

Before the season started, my opinion was that Benge would be best served opening the year in the minors and getting roughly 200 PA in Triple-A before heading to the majors. Let’s pretend he did that. How would his last 308 PA rate if that was the entirety of his time with the Mets? That .853 OPS would be tied for the 22^nd-best mark in the majors among those with at least 300 PA. It’s been such fun watching him develop into this player.

Meanwhile, Ewing came up at age 21, two years younger than Benge, and hit right away. He had two multi-hit games in his first seven appearances. While he fell off the next 13 games, Ewing rebounded to have a six-week stretch where in 127 PA, he posted a .313/.386/.545 line, good for a .930 OPS, with 14 of his 35 hits going for extra-bases, including 6 HR.

Yet the part that no one wants to say out loud is what Ewing has produced since. In his last 37 games and 166 PA, he has just a .522 OPS. When he first came up, my joke was that Ewing was a three-true-outcome player. Typically, the TTO players are big sluggers. But Ewing worked deep counts, which resulted in a bunch of walks and strikeouts. And he had just enough power to put his TTO in the 50% range early on.

However, in his last 37 games, the home runs have completely dried up and the walks are down noticeably. Unfortunately, the strikeouts remain, as Ewing has a 28.3 K% - way too high for a guy without a home run.

Ewing’s slump has already gone on longer than his hot streak. And it calls into question how ready for prime time he really is. Let’s break down Ewing’s results:

First 20 games - .614 OPS
Next 33 games - .930 OPS - .354 BABIP
Last 37 games - .522 OPS - Luisangel Acuna this year has a .527 OPS

It’s certainly possible that Ewing finishes the year on an up note. Yet right now he looks completely lost at the plate. My opinion is that the Mets should remove him from the leadoff spot. He hit lower in the order on Sunday but we’ll have to see if that was a temporary thing, as the White Sox started a LHP. Ewing has the potential to be a prototypical leadoff man. But in 170 PA batting first in the lineup, he has a .609 OPS. And it’s not a case of the hits not falling in for him, as he has a .294 BABIP. The league average right now is a .289 BABIP.

We don’t want to overreact to a small sample and everything Ewing has done in the majors to this point falls into that category. It’s fun to watch Ewing play and my hope is that we see improvement from him over the final 31 games of the season. Still, at this point, I’m not writing his name in ink as being in the majors at the start of the 2027 season. And even if Ewing is the starter on Opening Day, there’s no guarantee he stays on the club all season. Recall that after a fabulous debut in 2015, former first-round pick Michael Conforto was sent to the minors in 2016.

There’s one thing left to consider here. While Benge and Juan Soto appear to be two of the Mets’ three starting outfielders next season, there’s another player who could fill the third slot instead of Ewing. Luis Robert Jr. has been a disappointment this year, being sidelined with an injury for most of it and not hitting great for the majority of the times when he was healthy.

Yet in his last 15 games, Robert has a 1.051 OPS with a .323 BABIP. That’s 121 points better than Ewing’s hot streak, with a BABIP 31 points lower. Without a doubt, it’s too small of a sample upon which to make a decision. But there exists a universe where Robert continues to hit, Ewing doesn’t and the Mets pick up Robert’s option, with the idea of starting Robert and sending Ewing back to Syracuse. Maybe that only has a 5% chance of happening. Yet it’s something to keep in the back of your mind for the remainder of the season.

Robert’s contract calls for him to make $20 million next year, with a $2 million buyout. So, it would cost the Mets $18 million to keep him. That’s essentially what they paid Frankie Montas this year. It would require another gamble on Robert remaining healthy, which certainly carries some risk. The pertinent question is if that’s more risk than Ewing being ready to play 150 games and being productive. Because right now, in his last 37 games, Ewing is sub-Acunan and looks borderline unplayable.