Deep Dive on Mets prospect Ryan Clifford, who has the best raw power in the system

Mets prospect Ryan Clifford has been turning heads for Brooklyn since being acquired from the Houston Astros in the Justin Verlander trade.

Here's a deep dive on the 20-year-old power hitter...

Background

Clifford was not a new name on scout’s radars when he was in the 2022 MLB Draft. He had been on U.S. national teams since he was 12 years old, including winning gold medals with the 12-and-under team in 2015 and the 15-and-under team in 2018.

This led to him committing to perennial baseball powerhouse Vanderbilt, where he would've been able to attend and re-enter the MLB Draft in 2024 has the 2022 draft not gone his way.

Entering the draft, MLB Pipeline ranked him as the No. 92 prospect in the class coming out of the Pro5 Academy in North Carolina. Once he slid past the top five rounds, the thought was that his asking price would not be met and he’d be off to Vanderbilt.

The Astros had a good relationship with Clifford throughout the process and realized that he would be signable for second-round money. I had heard that they had a true second-round grade on Clifford in the process, so they were willing to manipulate their draft pool in order to bring him into the fold.

They managed to go under-slot with all but two of their top-10-round selections, including Drew Gilbert. This allowed the Astros to sign Clifford for $1,256,530, which is the slot value of a late-second-round pick. He was also their second-biggest bonus issued in their 2022 draft class, behind just Gilbert. There are even some scouts who prefer Clifford to Gilbert as a prospect.

Fast forward a year later with the Mets unexpectedly selling at the trade deadline and the Astros having a strong desire to bring Verlander back. Gilbert was a must in any deal that sent Verlander to Houston and the Mets were insistent on Clifford being the second piece. Eventually, the Astros caved, making their two top paid draft picks from the 2022 draft members of the Mets organization.

Scouting Report

Clifford is a strongly built 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, and he has played first base as well as both corner outfield spots. He is a fringy athlete but has enough arm strength to think it is possible he can handle a corner outfield spot -- and he is known as a hard worker. However, most evaluators think his best spot defensively long-term is likely at first base.

Where Clifford really makes his money is with his bat. He has the best pure raw power in the Mets farm system at the moment, with some saying it may be as high as a 60 or 65 on the 20-80 scouting scale.

He has a smooth, easy left-handed swing that allows him to barrel the ball to all fields. He does not possess the true plus bat speed, but he has above average pitch recognition skills that allows him to not only draw walks (14.1-percent walk rate with High-A Brooklyn) but get to that power in-game as he relies more on strength than pure bat speed.

He will need to work on cutting down his strikeout rate as he struck out at a 25 percent clip with the Astros' High-A Asheville affiliate and 37.5 percent in only 29 games with Brooklyn. You really would like to see that number get to 20 percent or so to be able to maximize his power.

In 112 games between Asheville and Brooklyn, Clifford is hitting .265/.377/.485 with 19 doubles, 24 home runs and 80 RBI. That 24 home run number is second among minor leaguers playing their age-19 season, behind only Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Future

Clifford has a chance to be a 25-30 home run type of bat at the next level if he can work on lessening his strikeout rate. He may not be someone you look at as a future .300 hitter, but it is power and on-base ability that the Mets are often looking for.

He may ideally position himself at first base long-term, but the Mets will continue to work him out in the corner outfield spots with a true fallback of possibly being more of a primary designated hitter down the road, which he should have enough bat for. A lot of this of course can be dictated by the future of Pete Alonso, but that’s for another day.

Clifford is already considered for top-100 lists as Baseball America has him No. 92 in its latest update. If he can continue on his trajectory, he is another prospect in an improving farm system that this time next year could be on all public top-100 lists.