Mets Minors: Ronny Mauricio keeps top ranking, barely

This column will be a ranking of the organization’s top prospects and contain interesting trends and developments to these rankings on the fourth week of each month, doubling your Mets360 minor league content. Thanks to MiLB.com and modern broadcast abilities we are now starting to be able to see a lot of these players on TV or streaming. Because of this, we can now see that some of Mauricio’s outs have come on blistering line drives or how off balance a pitcher like Megill makes opponent batters appear.

1. Ronny Mauricio, SS: (Even)
The knock against Mauricio has always been that he hasn’t shown tremendous speed or power in his early years as a prospect. That is no longer the case as the Met prospect has 9 extra base hits in his first 14 games with 4 home runs. He isn’t showing any real stolen base ability (as a team the Cyclones haven’t been stealing bases at all) but this power goes a long way with a prospect who may not be able to defensively hold onto his current position. That being said, he’s had four errors in the early going and that isn’t a great sign. He is definitely at risk of losing his #1 ranking, despite playing well.

2. Francisco Alvarez, C: (Up 1)
The only thing holding Alvarez out of the Top spot on the Mets Prospect list is the outstanding hitting of Ronny Mauricio above him. On his own merits, Alvarez is obliterating the pitchers in Low-A St. Lucie hitting a .417/.567/.646 line. His power numbers don’t jump off the page but he has produced 7 extra base hits in his first 15 games. His plate control should grab even more attention as he has 15 walks and 7 strikeouts in the same amount of time. It’s only a matter of when for Alvarez’s ascension to Advanced A.

3. Brett Baty, 3B: (Up 2)
Baty makes the jump back into the Top 3 of the organization as Allan makes some room. Baty has been a hit machine for Brooklyn and a surprising source of stolen bases. The issue, if it truly is one, is that Baty isn’t showing the power that players like Mauricio and Mangum have around him. He has five doubles in this young season but it would be good for him to hit one out of the park, considering he still strikes out (about once per game) like a power hitter.

4. Thomas Szapucki, LHP: (Up 3)
Health was the biggest objective for the 2021 season. So far, he’s managed that. Szapucki has also managed to keep his K/9 over 9.0 (10.4) but the hits and walks he’s surrendered are both up. There is positive momentum on that front as in his last outing he surrendered only 2 hits and 1 walk over 4.0 innings. He has played well but he is getting a major boost in the rankings in part because of Matt Allan’s injury and in part because Vientos has not been playing that well.

5. Mark Vientos, 3B: (Up 1)
While Vientos is still a very good prospect, his standing as a Top 5 prospect has more to do with Matt Allan’s injury than his solid play. We can make excuses for Vientos’ slow start as he’s somewhat alone in AA with only Cortes, Carpio, Lagrange and (recently) Mangum as support. I think you will see Vientos travel downwards on this list unless he can get more consistent with his bat but he remains a strong Top 10 talent.

6. Matt Allan, RHP: (Down 4)
Ranked as the #2 prospect coming into May, Allan had benefited from an aggressive assignment to Advanced A in jumping over Alvarez in the season starting rankings. Any player who falls out for a year due to injury takes a minimum of a five ranking dive. Thanks to Kilome having a rough night this week, Allan already rebounds one ranking, back to 6th. With injured players it is generally a good thing to see them fall in the rankings because it means healthy players are playing well.

7. Franklyn Kilome, RHP: (Even)
The good news with Kilome is that he’s starting games and he’s healthy as the Mets decide to give him one more chance as a starter. The bad news is that his control remains a problem and he’s not generating many K’s. In fact, he has 8 K’s and 12 BB’s to start the year. He will slip, and fast, as soon as more players on the Top 20 are actually seeing gametime action.

8. J.T. Ginn, RHP: (Up 1)
Still recovering from his Tommy John surgery, ss soon as he is healthy, Ginn will start for the St. Lucie Mets and that day cannot come soon enough. The Mets are starting a number of truly obscure prospects at the level. His rise in the ranks is based upon him hopefully being able to pitch for the Mets at some point this season.

9. Pete Crow-Armstrong, CF: (Down 5)
Was off to a very strong start before landing on the injured list. This injury only placed him on the 7-day but the Mets have since revealed that he’s got a torn labrum and will likely be out for the remainder of the season. This sends him down the defacto five slots to land him 9th overall.

10. Alexander Ramirez, OF: (Even)
There are a few Met prospects in the middle of the Top 20 who have yet to play in the 2021 season. These players have a lot of potential to move up the rankings quickly if they get off to strong starts. Ramirez is one who only has a 50/50 shot at beginning his year in the US with the condensed minor league organizations.

11. Freddy Valdez, OF (Even)
A surprising name left off of the Low-A roster, Valdez was expected to begin the year with Port St. Lucie since he had a 3 game taste of the GCL before the lost year. At 19 years of age he is not too young to begin the year with the Rookie League GCL but his lack of inclusion remains surprising given the Mets lack of legitimate outfield talent in the upper minors.

12. Robert Dominguez, RHP (Even)
Another player who had a chance at full season baseball was Dominguez but his lack of inclusion is less surprising. The talented pitcher will, hopefully, start stateside with the GCL squad when short season baseball begins.

13. Harol Gonzalez, RHP (Even)
Injuries never happen at the right time. If he weren’t hurt, you would have likely seen the major league debut of the most underrated prospect in the Mets system. Instead, Gonzalez found himself on the Injured List watching as the Mets made multiple bullpen based starts. Hopefully Gonzalez gets back on the mound for AAA soon.

14. Tylor Megill, RHP: (Up 10)
There haven’t been too many bright spots for the Mets in the upper minors but Megill is certainly one of them. No player in the Top 20 has moved up more significantly in the first month of the system and it is easy to see why. Megill has started four games, pitching over 5.0 innings in each outing, in 21.2 innings he’s only given up 15 hits and he’s struck out 33. His 3 walks in his first outing appear to be an aberration as his WHIP has dropped below 1.00 as he makes a case for promotion to AAA or the majors.

15. Jaylen Palmer, Util: (Up 1)
At 6’4” the Mets seem to have determined that the best spot for Palmer is the outfield. He’s currently getting time in Center, though I think he’ll wind up in right. He moves up despite only managing a .599 OPS because he has shown glimpses of the player he can be and seems to be managing his new position reasonably well.

16. Adrian Hernandez, OF: (Up 1)
The highly thought of international prospect was a bit of a surprise in High A and seems to be having a bit of a struggle with the level in the early going. Like Palmer, his boost in the rankings has more to do with his potential based on where he is now, than his performance in 2021.

17. Khalil Lee, CF: (Down 4)
Lee drops four spots despite getting time in the majors. His prospect status was actually going to be higher on this list, as he was rebounding in AAA but his lack of success in the majors prevented that from coming together. Hopefully the Mets get their players back into the field so Lee can head back up to Syracuse.

18. Sam McWilliams, RHP: (Down 3)
Players who are new to an organization occasionally have too much hype surrounding them. McWilliams looked good in his first outing but has looked downright bad in 4 of the 6 times Syracuse has put him on the mound. It feels like McWilliams will be falling off the Top 20 rankings by the end of June right now.

19. Tony Dibrell, RHP: (Up 3)
Dibrell began the year on the outside of the Top 20 but surges onto the list with Megill at the expense of Jordany Ventura and Michel Otanez who fall off. Dibrell has his K/9 over 9.0, his WHIP under 1.00 and a 1.93 ERA but he’s not as buzzworthy as his compatriot because he’s a step behind him in terms of conditioning. In his three outings Dibrell has not reached 5.0 innings as of yet.

20. Carlos Cortes, 2B/OF (Even)
Cortes has appeared to be a somewhat streaky hitter in 2021 as he surges for several games and then sees his bat go silent. He’s made the shift from second to left field in 2021 and seems to have taken it in stride. He needs to start showing more power to be relevant at his new position though. He had a particularly impressive 5 hit outing this past week.

Notable Movement:

Wagner Lagrange, OF: AA outfielder moves up two spots to land 21st overall on the top prospect rankings. Would not be surprising to see him on this list moving forward.

Jake Mangum, OF: Surprising most people, Mangum has displayed a lot of power in Advanced A to begin the year. The outfielder was previously known as being more of a leadoff option but this new wrinkle makes him surge up three spots in the rankings and up to AA. Should this continue, he will quickly solidify a spot in the Top 20.

Shervyen Newton, SS: This shortstop is struggling at a league he is now too old to play in. He was dropped thirteen spots in the rankings from 27th to 40th overall. You know this song and dance, he strikes out a ton and doesn’t get on base nearly enough.

Scott Ota, OF: A college outfielder who showed promise in his debut season continues to show talent in 2021. He makes a five position leap to land 29th overall.

Hayden Senger, C: Senger jumps an impressive 10 spots which sounds like a lot but only gets him to 38th overall. Movement in the back half of the top 50 comes pretty cheap. With Alvarez hitting so well and AA needing more offense, I could see Senger getting a promotion fairly soon.

Antoine Duplantis, OF: The most New Orleans named prospect in the Mets organization has had a very good start to his 2021 season and has made his first appearance on the Top 50 prospect list.

Desmond Lindsay, OF: The one time prospect has been dropped, ceremonially to 50th in the prospect list. Expectations are that this is the last you will hear of him.