New York Mets Organization Review: Biggest Farm System Winners and Losers In 2026

With the New York Mets’ season fully in the books, it’s time to assess what happened and predict what lies ahead for a number of high-profiled prospects. The process includes identifying who helped or hurt themselves the most from the start of the season.

That’s often difficult to decide, because players are constantly working on their games and experimenting with tweaks and overhauls that can affect their numbers. But enough players made clear strides and took clear tumbles over the 5 1/2-month campaign to fill a list.

With that, Grand Central Mets presents its listing of the organization's three biggest winners and three biggest losers in 2026. It’s focused on players who performed well above or below their places in GCM’s preseason rankings, or who played their way into the rankings. We tried to stay away from prospects who missed significant time with injuries. That’s why Randy Guzman isn’t on the winners’ list and Antonio Jimenez, Eli Serrano III and Will Watson aren’t on the losers’ list.

New York Mets Prospect Winners (2026)

A.J. Ewing, OF

Ewing took the commuter lane to the big leagues. He raked for three weeks at Binghamton and two weeks at Syracuse before getting the call in the second week of May. The big club was desperate for a spark.

The kid did his part, especially in that first month with his hot hitting, acrobatic outfield play, and daring mentality on the bases. (His teammates didn’t exactly follow suit.)

First MLB homer for @Mets top prospect A.J. Ewing!

110.5 mph | 405 feet pic.twitter.com/LV6DnvlJup

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) May 14, 2026

More importantly, he showed enough ability and grit that the Mets were patient with him through his inevitable rookie struggles at the plate. He rewarded the patience by being a 3.0 bWAR player for the year.

While the offense lagged at times, the defense always showed up. He entered the final weekend of the season tied for 17th among qualified MLB center fielders with seven outs above average (OAA), per Baseball Savant, and tied for 15th among all MLB center fielders with four defensive runs saved (DRS), per Fangraphs.

OH WOW!

A.J. EWING, WHAT A CATCH! pic.twitter.com/7Hl1EieeLA

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 29, 2026

The offensive numbers will look light in comparison: He ends the season with a 98 wRC+, a .324 on-base percentage, a 25.4 percent strikeout rate (to a 9.2 walk rate), a 41.7 percent hard-hit rate, and a 75.8 percent stolen base success rate (25-for-33).

But remember, this was his age-21 season, and he got through it without crumbling. In fact, he sprinted to the finish line: From Aug. 31 through Sept. 23, he batted .361/.420/.514 with three home runs and 16 Ks in 81 plate appearances. One of those homers was this seed into the second deck at Yankee Stadium off David Bednar on Sept. 11:

A.J. Ewing hits one to the second deck in right field! pic.twitter.com/LAHjDMoQ9L

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 12, 2026

As Mets owner Steve Cohen said recently, the Mets have “got an outfield” now. Ewing and fellow rookie Carson Benge are responsible for that.

Zac Thornton, LHP

He dropped an H and picked up a big-league rotation spot in the second half. Thornton, 24, graduated from mid-tier to the majors in the summer, and he got better as the competition got tougher. He went from a combined 4.02 ERA with Binghamton and Syracuse to a 3.40 ERA (3.52 FIP) with New York.

The most notable part of his game is his willingness to pitch inside and trust his glove-side command while lacking elite stuff. He pounds his 88-mph cutter in on hitters’ hands and tries to use his slider as a wipeout pitch.

Another huge factor is that he seems to know how to pitch. He already has seven pitches as a rookie: four-seamer, two-seamer, cutter, slider, sweeper, curveball and changeup. When you throw 92 like Thornton does, it pays to throw everything and try to keep hitters off balance.

Did we mention that he loves to compete? Like when he got Anthony Volpe to ground into a double play to finish seven innings after he convinced manager Andy Green to keep him in the game:

Thornton is FIRED UP! ? pic.twitter.com/Qv0DupLk2D

— New York Mets (@Mets) September 12, 2026

Despite needing to stay out of the middle of the zone, he has been able to limit walks. In fact, his numbers in that category improved markedly after his call-up to the bigs, from 10 percent in the minors to 5.3 percent in MLB (94th percentile per Baseball Savant).

Thornton is now part of a homegrown rotation core that also includes Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Jonah Tong, with Jonathan Santucci, the Mets Player Development’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year for ‘26, waiting in the wings.

Mitch Voit, 2B/SS

Voit is a young man in a hurry. The 21-year-old hustled his way to Double-A in his second pro season, and he put in seven eventful weeks there. He stormed out of the gate with the Rumble Ponies before weakening, but he was also a contributor to the club’s furious stretch run.

What a Double-A debut for this kid ?

Mitch Voit (@Mets No. 5 prospect) last night:
3-for-5 | 3 XBH (2 2B & 1 3B) | 2 R | BB

? x #DefendOurHome x @MetsPlayerDev x @1Mvvoit pic.twitter.com/uocATadNNT

— Binghamton Rumble Ponies (@RumblePoniesBB) July 30, 2026

To use another torturous horse racing analogy, he’s a two-year-old colt that has a shot at making the Kentucky Derby (aka getting promoted to the Mets) next year.

His full season of work in 2026 (.802 OPS, 13 home runs, 45-of-55 in steals over 105 games) earned him Minor League Player of the Year honors from Mets Player Development. When he came to Citi Field to accept the award, he became an internet icon thanks to his impossibly good looks.

The Mets are more in love with his legs and his rocket arm, the latter a remnant of his days as a two-way player for the University of Michigan.

Let's check in on the reigning Eastern League Player of the Week...

Mitch Voit (@Mets No. 6 prospect) shows off his range at shortstop to make a spectacular play!

? x #DefendOurHome x @MetsPlayerDev pic.twitter.com/kE82BdpBIp

— Binghamton Rumble Ponies (@RumblePoniesBB) August 4, 2026

Count on the front office gazing longingly at him in Port St. Lucie next February and March -- if baseball is being played at that point, of course.

New York Mets Prospect Losers

Ryan Clifford, 1B/OF

He didn’t fall far in the GCM Top 20 during the season, but Clifford took a heavy tumble nonetheless with a 63 wRC+ in 470 plate appearances for Syracuse. His 174 punchouts (37.2 percent K rate) obliterated whatever impact he generated with his 18 home runs. His 10th-percentile Z-contact rate neutered his 90s-percentile EV and barrel rates.

To put that in layman's terms, selling out for slug didn’t work.

If he was an even average hitter, he could have maybe forced the Mets’ hand on a promotion. They showed they were willing to give kids a shot at the big-league level. They opened the season with Benge in right field and then made Ewing their center fielder in May. Clifford, 23, could have been next as the club’s first-base production lagged. (For context: Mets first basemen were 28th in the majors with an 89 wRC+ and 23rd with 18 home runs).

He was given a reset in mid-August when Syracuse placed him on its development list. After he returned to the lineup on Sept. 3, he produced decently to end the season: a .978 OPS, two home runs and a 25.6 percent K rate in 11 games. Six of his eight hits went for extra bases.

But the full body of work can’t be ignored. Neither can the company Clifford has at the position after the deadline pickup of fellow slugger Billy Amick and the second-half power surge by Corey Collins at Binghamton.

R.J. Gordon, RHP

Gordon, 24, put himself on a fast track last year by succeeding at Double-A in his first pro season. Where does he stand now after taking a long step back in 2026? He pitched close to a full season at Binghamton (21 starts), but his ERA went up almost two runs to 5.03 (with a 4.91 FIP) and his RA/9 (runs allowed per nine) rate increased by a similar amount to 6.54. The K-rate at Double-A fell sharply, from 28.7 percent to 20.1 percent, and the walk rate jumped from 6.1 percent to 10.4 percent. The home run rate inched up from 2.8 percent to 3.0 percent. The only red in his Prospect Savant player card was his chase rate, which finished in the 89th percentile.

Does he have a health excuse? Maybe for early in the season. He began the year on the injured list and made his first appearance for Binghamton on May 10. The Rumble Ponies limited his innings at first.

But he handled a full workload over the final two months, and the numbers were just okay: a 3.82 ERA, .701 opponents’ OPS, 21.6 percent K-rate and 9.7 percent walk rate over 12 starts and 63 2/3 innings pitched from July 3 on. That’s not what an organization would want from an older college prospect like Gordon.

Jacob Reimer, 3B/1B

Like Clifford, Reimer stayed near the top half of the Top 20, but there’s little denying he stalled at Binghamton. Before he was sidelined with a groin injury in mid-June, he was slashing .212/.332/.391 with six home runs in 214 PAs for the Rumble Ponies. The numbers weren’t much better after his return from a rehab stint in early August: .263/.341/.373, two home runs in 135 PAs.

His 97 wRC+ belies those basic stat lines. The key was his selectiveness. Prospect Savant had Reimer’s 12.9 percent walk rate in the 73rd percentile (the rate itself jumped almost three points between ’25 and ’26) and his chase rate in the 81st percentile.

The downside was he didn’t swing the bat enough. His overall swing percentage and in-zone swing percentage were both in the ninth percentile. The zone-contact percentage was only in the 29th percentile.

Also like Clifford, Reimer, 22, will have to contend with new faces at his primary position next spring. Jefferson Rojas played a lot of third base in Double-A this year, and Amick plays there as well.

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