Mets prospect Ryan Clifford had gotten off to a bit of a slow start this season.
Despite that, the organization decided to continue its newly developed aggressive approach with promotions this season, giving him the call-up to Double-A Binghamton midway through the month of May.
The hope was that getting away from the Cyclones’ windy beach-front ballpark, which is particularly tough on left-handed hitters, would help him tap into some of that power potential and regain confidence at the plate.
Clifford again got off to a sluggish start, recording just three hits and one homer over his first ten games at the new level, but he’s finally been settling into a nice little groove over the past few weeks.
Starting with his two-hit performance on May 27 against the Harrisburg Senators, the 20-year-old slugger has reached base safely in 13 of his last 14 games, bringing his on-base percentage up to .384 for the season.
Clifford’s also been showing off his game-changing raw power, pushing his stretch to three home runs over his last four games with a three-run shot to dead center in the ninth inning of Thursday’s loss to the Bowie Baysox. He now has four long balls across 60 Double-A at-bats after hitting just one over his first 102 at-bats to begin the season in Brooklyn.
Clifford's still hitting just .198 with a .736 OPS on the season, but the young slugger has been showing much improved confidence at the plate and he’s been making much harder contact.
He, of course, was acquired from the Houston Astros alongside fellow top outfield prospect Drew Gilbert in the Justin Verlander deal as part of last season’s franchise-altering trade deadline selloff.
Heading into this season, Clifford found himself ranked as the system’s fourth overall prospect on SNY’s Top 30 list and he’s already climbed his way all the way up to 75th overall on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list.
The sweet-swinging lefty still has a ways to go in his development at the Double-A level, but his aggressive promotion from Brooklyn is starting to draw the exact results that the Mets hoped it would.
