Mets Minors: Wagner Lagrange on the rise

We started talking about Wagner Lagrange in 2017 when he was part of an offensive juggernaut in Kingsport. The outfielder who had succeeded in the DSL in 2015 had struggled through a GCL debut in 2016 before breaking out. In 2017, in 58 games between Kingsport and Brooklyn, he managed a .330/.379/.460 batting line. Of the Kingsport Mets, that season, he wasn’t even the strongest outfield hitter. Since then, he’s the one who stand out as having a major league future.

 

In 2018, at the age of 22, Lagrange repeated in Brooklyn for a full short season but seemed to take a step back as his OPS fell to .713 in the 62 games he played. It was by no means a bad season but being a year older than almost all his common players he seemed to have lost whatever traction his 2017 season had earned him.

 

This led to the Mets only promoting the 23 year old outfielder to Columbia rather than moving him directly to St. Lucie. In his first 46 games it appeared that Lagrange wasn’t going to be anything special. His OPS of .675 was greatly hurt by a bad month of June but towards the end of June he turned things around.

 

In his final 25 games in Columbia he saw his OPS rise to .864 aided by a .957 OPS in the month of July. All of these things combined to earn the outfielder a promotion to Port St. Lucie where he was finally playing with the right age group of players again.

 

Thus far, in 14 games at Advanced A, he has an OPS of .998 with 8 extra base hits and 2 stolen bases. In his last 10 games he has 5 games with multiple hits and 4 games with 3 hits. All of this combined with a reasonably good rate of walks to strikeouts makes Lagrange a likely name in the Mets Top 20 prospect list.

 

AA:

Binghamton Rumble Ponies

Andres Gimenez has lost this season – I don’t think an August surge can save this season and it looks more and more likely that he’s destined for the Top 10 and not the Top 5 on prospect lists.

 

Kevin Smith looks great – He’s got 3 outings in AA under his belt and thus far has pitched like an Ace in two of them. Smith doesn’t profile as an Ace but looks like a quality mid-rotation arm right now.

 

A+:

St. Lucie Mets

Thomas Szapucki looks a bit more wild – He’s pitching really well, considering this is somewhat a rehab situation, but he’s walking more batters than he’s known for. His K/9 and WHIP are doing well so you should feel good about him anyway.

 

A:

Columbia Fireflies

Mark Vientos heats up again – Hopefully this is the beginning of another surge of strong hitting. I wonder if the Mets might promote him to play in the Advanced A playoffs.

 

Ronny Mauricio has a great week – He’s hitting .342 over his last 10 games. If he could show a little more power or patience he’d be perfect.

 

SS:

Brooklyn Cyclones

Wilmer Reyes is a swinger – Seeing him in person left me with the impression that while he’s physically gifted he is much more a swinger than a hitter.

 

Joe Genord’s Gold Glove – He may not win one but his glovework was phenomenal when I saw him last week. He’s one of the best defensive first baseman I’ve seen.

 

R+:

Kingsport Mets

 

Francisco Alvarez might be gunning for Top Prospect – He’s been great since his promotion and has enjoyed another solid week. He has a multi-hit game in each of his outings this August.

 

Jaylen Palmer needs patience – He’s a good swinger but he struck out almost twice a game in this short season rookie level. He needs to be better.

 

Brett Baty has his OPS on the rise – His batting average doesn’t look great but his OPS creeps closer to .700 thanks to more walks and solid power numbers.