Mets prospect storylines to watch in 2022

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In just under a week, all four of the Mets’ full-season minor league affiliates will be ready to kick off the 2022 seasons.

Triple-A Syracuse will get a head start on the action (and even the major leagues) with its Opening Day on Tuesday, followed by Double-A Binghamton, High-A Brooklyn, and Low-A St. Lucie on Friday.

It’s an exciting time to follow the Mets’ minor leagues, but with so many games and players, here’s what you need to be focusing on.

The New Regime, Take Two

On the eve of last season’s minor league Opening Day, the Mets fired their incumbent major league hitting coaches and promoted from within to fill the vacancies. That came at the cost of disrupting the new player development structure that had been built over the winter and spring.

After serving the major league team for the remainder of 2021, Kevin Howard and Hugh Quattlebaum return to their roles as director of player development and director of hitting development, respectively.

It allows the pair to essentially finish what they started, as they were originally tasked with modernizing the Mets’ player development infrastructure under Steve Cohen. Part of that is an organizational unification from the lowest depths of the minor league system through Triple-A and even the majors.

“I think what they’ve been lacking is structure and stability,” Howard told NorthJersey.com over the winter. “The players need to hear one voice, one message, and it needs to be consistent over a period of time.”

Quattlebaum will be joined in the hitting department by new hitting coordinator Tim LaMonte comes to the Mets from the Astros organization. On the pitching side, the operations are now led by Jono Armold, who held the pitching coordinator title with the Texas Rangers over the last two seasons.

The Future is Almost Here

The refrain over recent years has been that the Mets’ top prospects had bright futures that were just that — shiny twinkles that weren’t quite close enough to reach out and grab. Only six teams have had fewer players aged 24 or younger make their debut since 2019.

This year should be the start of what had been considered the future for the last four to five seasons. No longer are the top levels of the organization completely bereft of exciting young prospects.

Starting with a pair on the 40-man roster (and thus theoretically eligible to be recalled to the majors), Mark Vientos will be manning third base at Syracuse to open the season, while Ronny Mauricio should get the bulk of the shortstop reps at Binghamton.

It’s more likely that Vientos, fresh off an organization-best 25 home runs in 2021, sees big league time this season, but as long as Mauricio, 21 next week, continues to make gains in the power and plate discipline departments, he’ll enter the conversation sooner rather than later.

Joining Mauricio in the Rumble Ponies lineup will be catcher Francisco Álvarez and third baseman Brett Baty. The latter once again starts a level below Vientos to allow both adequate innings in their primary position. Neither Álvarez nor Baty has to be added to the 40-man roster until after this season, but it isn’t impossible to envision either knocking on the door before the end of the year.

Draft Pick Debuts

Even though those top prospects have ascended the minor league ladder, the cupboard isn’t entirely bare below them.

Despite being unable to sign top pick Kumar Rocker, the Mets’ amateur scouting department received high marks for the quality of their Day Two selections, a sentiment that will now be challenged as those players reach full season ball for the first time.

Second-round prep arm Calvin Ziegler, third-rounder Dominic Hamel, and eighth-rounder Mike Vasil will headline the rotation for St. Lucie in what is sure to be one of the most dangerous rotations in the Florida State League. Ziegler will likely spend the summer there, while Hamel and Vasil, having already shown the ability to pitch in college, could quickly move up the ranks.

Vasil is notable for having already seen a velocity bump since turning pro. The same can be said for 10th-rounder Keyshawn Askew and sixth-rounder Carson Seymour. In an ideal world, these arms will begin to populate the upper minors in 2023 with the ability to help the major league team soon after.

With a slew of early draft picks on the docket this summer, following the failed Rocker signing and compensation for Noah Syndergaard, the Mets will continue to add to their developing depth stable.

Deep Sleepers to Watch

The Mets’ system depth in relation to other organizations, considered middle of the pack entering 2022, could see a considerable boost if some of their lottery ticket sleepers burst onto the scene this year.

Outfielder Stanley Consuegra tore the cover off the ball during minor league camp and will begin the year with St. Lucie. After missing 2019 with an ACL tear, the 2020 pandemic season, and an appendectomy that limited him to 20 games in 2021, Consuegra and his five-tool skill set should be good to go. He signed for $500,000 on the same day as Mauricio in 2017 and will still only be 21 for the entire 2022 season.

On the pitching side, watch out for some of the electric young Latin American arms whom the Mets have developed at their Dominican complex over the last two years.

Joel Díaz is the name to know, followed closely behind by José Acuña, lefty Javier Atencio, Luis Rodríguez, Raimon Gomez, and Daniel Juarez.

Notably, Gomez and Rodríguez have shown the ability to touch triple digits with their fastball while refining their secondary pitches.