Player Development

[Centerfield]

Continuing the discussion from the IGT. Both Benge and Ewing have a .722 OPS today. That’s promising for such young players, but they’ll need to improve on this if they want to meet expectations. Christian Scott has been good since his return from the IL. And McLean, if he’s now gotten through his control issues, is also a very promising player. I would say we have four wins, or potential wins, in the player development department. 
 

On the flip side, all of the original “Baby Mets” have been disappointing. Alvarez, Baty and Vientos have all failed to develop as we hoped. Mauricio too. Guys like Gilbert and Acuna never got there either. Ryan Clifford is striking out 30% of the time in AAA and Reimer has taken a step back. That great selloff in 2023 got us zero useful players. Tong is lost. Wenninger and Watson don’t look like they’re headed in the right direction. Not a single relief prospect is anywhere close. Zach Thornton doesn’t look to have enough talent. 
 

Tobias Myers is lost. Manaea, Senga and Peterson hardly resemble what they once looked like. Peralta is having a down year. Bichette is still having a bad year. Polanco and Robert weren’t around for long, but struggled while they were playing. 
 

I would say the Mets biggest problem is player development. How they manage to get the absolute bottom outcome of the players they have. 

[Cowtipper]

Well, I mean it's kind of unfair to say anything about Jonah Tong right now as he's only 23, has less than 29 innings of big league experience and is in just his fourth season of pro ball. But how about Calvin Ziegler? Second round pick in 2021 that's played just four pro games since 2023, with just one appearance this year and none last year. 

I mean, look at what happens to their 'top prospects.' Either they get traded for rentals or don't pan out with the Mets. The following are all top-three picks going back to 2020. PCA and J.T. Ginn were traded for rentals. Ziegler's always hurt. Dom Hamel got into a single game with NY before being disposed of (and he's also struggled at AAA), Kumar Rocker didn't even sign, Kevin Parada is a dud offensively, Jett Williams was traded for what looks to be a rental before ever playing for NY (and is struggling in the minors now), Blade Tidwell was traded for a rental after being given just 15 innings with the Mets, Colin Houck has struggled to a .216 average in the Mets system, Sproat's gone for the same rental as Williams, McLean's done well, Benge has done well, Jonathan Santucci's performed well in the minors but has never pitched above AA, Nate Dohm was traded away, Mitch Voit has struggled since joining the organization, Antonio Jimenez is hitting below .200 since joining the organization, and Peter Kussow is always hurt. 

It's not just player development, it's the obsessively sticking with certain "top prospects" even after they're long past prospect age while disposing of the rest for oftentimes close to nothing all willy-nilly. The most egregious of recent vintage were Baty/Vientos/Alvarez. They weren't meant to just be solid, they were meant to be anchors with some level of stardom expected of each. Alvarez especially was rated very highly; I wanna say I read that some considered him the top prospect in the game. Which I guess does have to do with player development, because they're myopically focusing on the development of certain players -- desperately hoping to get them past ceilings that they clearly can't get above -- to the expense of other players and team success. 

I'm still waiting for Gavin Cecchini, Cesar Puello and Lastings Milledge to do something. 

[Edgy MD]

A large portion of those players were largely developed under a different regime.

Development, however, is of course an ongoing discipline.  Andy Green took over as farm director in 2024.

[MFS62]

I was really disappointed at the case of Calvin Ziegler. 

He had a stretch of something like six games in which he started games and gave up one or fewer hits (limited innings). But he got injured and has spent the last few years on the injure list. You can't predict injuries. It was not a fault of the development process.

Later