SNY contributor Joe DeMayo answers fan questions in this edition of the Mets Minor League Mailbag…
How do the Mets manage all these top prospects in AAA with being a win now team? Do they need to consolidate some of them via trades or will the big club be able to accommodate all these potential rookies? — @JamesLiebz
I received quite a few different variations of a question surrounding the trading of prospects. A year ago, when David Stearns became the Mets president of baseball operations, one of his jobs was to learn the organization from top to bottom. Most say that process ultimately takes a full season to have that firm grasp on things.
After a successful season that led to 89 regular season wins and a trip to the NLCS, the pressure to win now has naturally risen. That doesn’t mean Stearns is going to just unload the entire system of prospects, and everything is only about 2025, but the Mets want to win now. They also want to win in 2026, 2027, 2028, and so on. Doing that requires an infusion of youth into the roster year-over-year.
With that said, I think the Mets are in an excellent position in Year 2 of this regime to be able to trade from their prospect stock. To James’ point, the list of infielders who have already made the major leagues or I project will debut in 2025 is quite long:
Francisco Lindor
Jeff McNeil
Mark Vientos
Brett Baty
Luisangel Acuña
Ronny Mauricio
Jett Williams
Lindor and Vientos are going to hold down two of the four infield positions and aren’t realistic candidates to be traded. Thus, there is only room for two others to get an opportunity. Whether you are talking about a deal with the White Sox for someone like Garrett Crochet or the Mariners for someone like Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert or George Kirby or whatever other arms are available, this feels like the right pool of players to start from when building trade proposals to help the pitching staff.
Ultimately, there won’t be room for everyone, and while depth is important, something will have to give. It is just a matter of finding the right fit at the right time. I think that time could be this winter.
Looks like Syracuse should be full of arms that are coming into a make-or-break season. What do you see happening with Mike Vasil, Dom Hamel and Blade Tidwell? — @jas0n_russo
The Triple-A Syracuse rotation has a chance to have four prospects in it to start the 2025 season. The three names above and the organization’s No. 2 prospect Brandon Sproat.
The Mets have decisions to make on both Vasil and Hamel as they are Rule 5 eligible. They need to be added to the 40-man roster or be exposed and quite possibly selected in the Rule 5 Draft. I would lean toward expecting the Mets to protect both.
I have spoken on The Mets Pod and written about the difficulty surrounding transitioning to Triple-A for pitchers: They are at times facing former major league veteran hitters, using a different baseball, and the strike zone is different with the automatic ball-strike zone in place.
It is fair to say that all three of Vasil, Hamel and Tidwell had a roller coaster season with Syracuse, perhaps with more downs than ups. From a pure stuff standpoint, I don’t think much has changed with any of them from when they all at times dominated the Double-A level.
It will be important for these three pitchers to not just focus on throwing more strikes in 2025, but also throwing better strikes. With Vasil and Hamel potentially garnering 40-man roster status and the number of pitchers needed to get through a season, it is not hard to imagine them getting opportunities at the big league level. I wrote in my updated top 30 list that they both could end up bullpen options.
I look at Tidwell as less of a “make-or-break” type of pitcher. Vasil will be 25 in March and Hamel will be 26 in March, while Tidwell won’t turn 24 until June. He has been a name who Stearns has brought up more than once when talking about some of the upper-level prospects who can make an impact on the big league team. Scouts I speak to still believe he has No. 4 type of starter potential, and he could also make his big league debut in 2025.
