As the 2013 season winds down, I took a look at MLB.com’s top 20prospects for the New York Mets. On today’s list, we had eleven pitchers in that top twenty organizational list:
Pitching Prospects:
1. Noah Syndergaard (was 3rd at beginning of season)
3. Rafael Montero (was 8th)
11. Jeurys Familia (was 5th)
12. Cory Mazzoni (was 15th)
13. Michael Fulmer (was 10th)
14. Victor Black (was 17th for Pittsburgh and now pitching in the majors)
15. Luis Mateo (was 9th)
16. Domingo Tapia (was 11th)
17. Jack Leathersich (No ranking at beginning of season)
18. Gabriel Ynoa (No ranking at beginning of season)
19. Jacob de Grom (was 12th)
So, one of the two pitchers making the Mets’ top 20 prospects is 20-year-old Grabriel Ynoa.
He is a right-handed pitcher who was drafted by the Mets in 2009. This year, he pitched in Single-A Ball for the SAL champion Savannah Sand Gnats. He made twenty-two game starts for the Sand Gnats. He threw 135.2 innings, went 15-4 with a 2.72 ERA. In the league, he was first in wins and third in ERA. He earned a 106:16 (K:BB ratio) and accrued a 1.02 WHIP. Currently, his fastball clocks in at between 90-92 MPH and he possesses a slider and a change-up too.
On September 12th, Ynoa threw 7 scoreless innings and helped the Sand Gnats beat Hagerstown 6-0 in the South Atlantic League’s Championship Series. In that game, he did not allow a runner past first base in his final five innings of work and retired twelve of the last thirteen batters he faced.
He was named the SAL’s Pitcher-of-the-Year and was a mid-season All-Star. He stands 6’2″” and weights 158 pounds.
At Savannah, he was a teammate of likewise duly ranked top-twenty Mets’ prospects Brandon Nimmo and (newly acquired) Dilson Herrera. Also pitching on this championship team was rehabbing major league pitcher, Jeurys Familia.
The Sand Gnats were managed by Luis Rojas and the team’s pitching coach was non-other than Frank Viola. Viola, was named the SAL Coach-of-the-Year.
Baseball Prospect Nation currently projects him as having potential as a number four starter.
So, if the Mets actually do trade some high-level pitching prospects this off-season for offensive help, we might just see Ynoa move up higher on their official prospect list by the beginning of next year.
Not Steven Matz?
I don’t see where Matz is in the Mets top 20. He was a teammate of Ynoa’s though.
What also interesting is that, if you look at the top ten by position, the Mets have a surprising number of position prospects in the top 10 for a team that supposedly is all pitching in terms of prospects. Flores and Herrera are in the top ten at 2b, DSmith is in the top 10 at 1st and Darnaud is 1 at C. If Flores had been put in the 3B category, he probably would have been top 10 there also and if you look at the grades for the top ten OF, Puello and Nimmo grade pretty will in comparison.
Yes…good point. The large chunk of the mets top 20 doesn’t start until position number eleven on the list.
Sorry .. Hit that too fast. I meant to say the large chunk of pitchers doesn’t start until position # 11.