5 Mets prospects who can make an impact during 2025 season, including Brandon Sproat

The Mets' 2024 season will be remembered most for the heroics of Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, the OMG Era with Jose Iglesias, and the emergence of a frontline starter in Sean Manaea.

In addition to that, there was real impact that young, homegrown talent had on the team’s success. 

Mark Vientos broke out in a way that has most believing he will be a staple in the middle of the lineup for years to come. 

Francisco Alvarez didn’t have the offensive season he and the Mets hoped for, but the impact his game-calling, receiving, and throwing had on the pitching staff cannot be understated. 

José Butto and Dedniel Nuñez were key cogs in the bullpen until Nuñez got injured. 

The Mets also may not have made the playoffs if Luisangel Acuña didn’t come up in Lindor’s absence in September and perform as he did.

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has said at every turn that it is important to leave room on the roster for young talent to get opportunities throughout the season. 

Not including young talent that has already debuted at the major league level like Acuña and Ronny Mauricio -- who is returning from a torn ACL -- the Mets have quite a few upper-level prospects who could debut and make an impact in 2025.

Here are five of them...

RHP Brandon Sproat

Sproat was one of the biggest risers in all minor league baseball in 2024. My No. 2 prospect in the system went from a second-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft who was looked at as a bit of a project, to a consensus top 100 prospect and one of the sport’s best pitching prospects.

The Mets' Organizational Pitcher of the Year has unique stuff. His four-seam fastball will sit in the mid-90s and touch 101 mph.

His best secondary offering is his changeup with plus arm-side fade. He also has a sweeper, hard slider/cutter, and a curve ball that is more of a get-me-over type of pitch. 

Sproat made it to Triple-A Syracuse in his first professional season and I expect him to start 2025 back in Syracuse. He has the potential to be a No. 2 type of starter if he can clean up his in-zone command and secondary offerings.

With some uncertainty at the back end of the Mets' rotation, Sproat has a chance to make a big impact in Queens in 2025.

OF Drew Gilbert

Gilbert was a prime candidate to make his big league debut in 2024. Unfortunately, he suffered a hamstring injury in early April and had a couple of setbacks that led to him only getting into 56 games at the Triple-A level. 

After getting healthy, the Mets sent Gilbert to the Arizona Fall League, where he got into 21 games and posted a .780 OPS with four home runs and more walks (17) than strikeouts (14). 

While Gilbert may lack a true elite tool, he is average-to-above-average across the board and is known as a high-energy, high-effort player. Some evaluators believe his future might be in a corner outfield spot, but the Mets will look to exhaust every possibility that he could stick in center field.

With the center field situation in Queens looking like Jose Siri and Tyrone Taylor as of this writing, Gilbert has the opportunity if he performs back at Syracuse early in 2025 to push for an opportunity to play between Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto in the Citi Field outfield.

RHP Blade Tidwell

A year ago, Tidwell was in consideration to be the top pitching prospect in the Mets' system, and he even made an appearance on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list.

He started the 2024 season with Double-A Binghamton, posting a 2.41 ERA in seven appearances before earning the call-up to Triple-A, where it was more of a struggle for him.

Tidwell's Triple-A ERA was 5.93 in 85.0 innings. He struggled with the home run ball (17 allowed) and walks (53). He was also impacted by the automatic ball-strike system that is in place at that level.

Despite the results, Tidwell's stuff profile was unchanged from his success at the Double-A level. He has a 93-95 mph fastball that will touch 97, with a sweeper, split-change and cutter. He needs to throw more strikes at the Triple-A level, and when he does, they need to be better strikes. 

Tidwell will start 2025 back with Triple-A, and if he can make the necessary strides at that level, he could push for a rotation spot at some point in the season. If not, the Mets could consider him as an option in the bullpen.

RHP Nolan McLean

McLean is the lone prospect on this list who has not appeared in a game for Triple-A Syracuse, but I still think it is possible he pushes for a role on the 2025 Mets. 

He is well known for coming into the Mets organization as a two-way player, but the Mets and McLean agreed to end the hitting experiment this past June.

McLean possesses the best pitch in the Mets' system with his 70-grade sweeper that is his primary swing-and-miss pitch. His four-seam fastball is an above-average offering that will sit in the mid-90s and touch 98 mph. As he continues to build up from college reliever to professional starter, McLean is working on a curve, changeup, and cutter as other secondary offerings.

There is a lot of excitement surrounding McLean’s potential to take a big jump forward in 2025. For the first time he will no longer have to split training, practice, and mental reps between hitting and pitching. He has to establish a third and fourth pitch behind his fastball and sweeper to fulfill his No. 3 or No. 4 type of starter potential, but has a floor of being a late-inning impact reliever.

It is unclear whether McLean will begin 2025 back with Double-A or in Triple-A, but he has the potential to push for a spot on the Mets' pitching staff in the summer.

RHP Jonathan Pintaro

Pintaro had an adventurous 2024. The now-27-year-old started the season in independent ball at the Pioneer League. His final start in independent ball was on June 2, when the Mets purchased his contract from the Glacier Range Riders.

He made his first appearance with High-A Brooklyn on June 6 and made it all the way to the Triple-A level by the middle of September. Pintaro posted a 2.68 ERA in 17 appearances, spanning 74.0 innings in the Mets' system.

The Mets then sent Pintaro to the Arizona Fall League, where they wanted him to get more innings against high level prospects and importantly get a feel for a different baseball than he had used in the minors: the major league ball.

Pintaro possesses a four-pitch mix with a fastball that will top out at 96, a cutter, a sweeper and a changeup. He has been a starter thus far in his professional career, but he is most likely to end up a reliever at the next level.

The Mets used 35 pitchers to get through the 2024 season, and Pintaro has the chance to go from pitching in the Pioneer League in Kalispell, Montana seven months ago to the Mets' bullpen at some point in 2025.