When David Wright signed the extension that pretty much
locked him up as a Met for the rest of his career, I thought it was pretty cool
that he decided to stay. I really like the guys that stay in one place and
become the face of the franchise like Joe Mauer and Chipper Jones. Not
necessarily the case for Jones but Wright appears to have picked a path that is
closer to Mauer’s. You have a guy who could have gone to a strong contender but
decides to finish where he started his career. While I think that team loyalty
is hard to come by in the game, and I love when it shows up every once in a
while, in the back of my mind I wish that a player of that caliber could have
gotten a better shot at winning a World Series.
One thing that David Wright said in his interview following
his extension with ESPN was that he wanted to have an inside look on where
ownership will be taking the Mets in the future (an important question given
the trouble that ownership has had in the past with Bernie Madoff). This was a
pretty vague statement that apparently played some role in keeping him in New
York. Looking at where the Mets are today being 14.5 games out of first I
wondered what David Wright was talking about, and decided to dive into who is
currently in their minor league system.
To start things off they have the number 1 ranked catcher
coming up through their system in Travis d’Arnaud. He was acquired from Toronto
in the R.A. Dickey trade and if it hadn’t been for injuries he would be ranked
higher than number 6 overall. Then you have pitchers like Jenrry Mejia. He made
his debut in 2010 and held a respectable ERA of 2.74 while he was healthy.
Jeurys Familia is a prospect with a strong arm and a lot of potential but will
need to learn control before he makes his jump the show (MLB ERA was 4.76).
Then we have Matt Harvey who is a minor leaguer no more. He showed promise last
season and has established himself as the anchor of the rotation this year with
an incredible 2.04 ERA. So that covers the birth year of 1989.
Moving on the players born after 1989, we have Zack Wheeler
who is 23 years old. In the Pacific Coast League he has a 3.93 ERA with 73
strikeouts to his name in 2013. For RHP he is ranked number 3 among prospects
and is ranked number 7 overall. He is a player whose fastball is clocked at 98
mph and can provide great movement and command to his pitches. Next to him you
have Noah Syndergaard, who at 20 years old has a fastball that consistently
hits 96 mph and a strong curve and changeup that can still be improved. He is
ranked #8 for RHP and #27 overall for prospects.
These are just some of the players they have coming up.
Others include Brandon Nimmo (OF), Gavin Cecchini (SS), and Wilmer Flores (3B).
I mainly focused on pitchers because I believe that is where the Mets are
focusing most of their attention. Harvey is among the first wave, and with
these new names coming up we might see a shift in power in New York.
The Yankees have some players coming up in the minors but it
could be a while before we see them, and they don’t have any prospects that
currently sit in the top 30. On top of that you have commitments to A-Rod
through 2017, Sabathia through 2015, Teixeira through 2016, the expensive
Vernon Wells through 2014, and Jeter who will need to be resigned after 2014
(if he decides not to retire). Then you got the younger talent in Granderson
and Cano who will be free agents after this year. What it comes down to is that
Karma may have caught up to the Yankees, and we will be seeing how deep their
pockets really are in the upcoming years.
So in conclusion, we have seen good moves from the Mets
management as of late including not resigning Dickey and getting d’Arnaud and
Syndergaard in return. Wright appears to have faith in what they are doing, so
depite being 14.5 games back in the division, in years to come we might see a
different looking Mets team and a shift in power for New York baseball.
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