213 Miles From Shea

Each year at 213 we look through the Non-Roster Invitees to spring training and get to know them a bit. Are they in camp to get a look at big league hitting/pitching to aid their development? Are the Mets just trying to get a better look at a future rookie? Are they a veteran trying to get back to the major league level? What can we expect from them this season?

Today is the first official day of spring training! What better to celebrate than kicking off this series! Today we’ll look at Matt Blackham, who was drafted out of Middle Tennessee State by the Mets in 2014. The 27 year old right handed reliever has been with the Mets his whole professional career and finally made it to Syracuse last year.

Let’s just get the numbers out of the way:

Career: 136 G, 211.2 IP, 2.38 ERA, 1.087 WHIP, 12.1 K/9
2019 Binghamton: 28 G, 39.2 IP, 2.72 ERA, 1.059 WHIP, 13.4 K/9
2019 Syracuse: 12 G, 15.2 IP, 2.30 ERA, 1.085 WHIP, 6.3 K/9

Matt has put up impressive numbers throughout his minor league career and continued to do that last season. Age wise, it’s about time for him to come up to the major leagues. He makes it out of camp with the ball club if there are injuries and he is able to rise above the other pitchers on the Mets 40 man who could also slide into that spot. So he is definitely on the outside looking in. On the other hand, his age makes it about right for him to come to Queens and the Mets have recently lost players that he would be competing against in the bullpen for various reasons (Eric Hanhold, Donnie Dart, Ryan O’Rourke, etc)

He has a fastball that sits in the low 90’s, a knucklecurve and a change up. He is also rule 5 eligible which could play a role in the Mets trying to find a way to force him on to the 40 man by the end of the season, depending on how he does in Syracuse.

Overall, the Mets have a lack of pitchers at the top levels of the minor leagues that can step in if something goes wrong this year. Matt Blackham could potentially be one of those pitchers. With the general shuffling of players on an off the 40 man as the year progresses, I expect to see Matt on the 40-man by the end of this year, possibly in Queens by September.

This is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.

I lied yesterday when I said that Tomas Nido is the name on the list you are probably most familiar with. That honor has to go to today’s prospect who made it to the bigs one year earlier than Nido, Gavin Cecchini.

Gavin first saw time with the Mets for a cup of coffee in in 2016 at the age of 22. He hit .333/.429/.667 over 4 games and 7 PAs, so pretty much the definition of a small sample size. The Mets got a much longer look at him the following year were he played in 32 games with 82 PAs hitting .208/.256/.273.

BA talked about how he had a lot to prove in 2018 after that slash line in 2017. And he started too, hitting .301/.347/.469 in the minors that year before he took a pitch off his hand that knocked him out of playing for a while. BA wrote that his future in 2019 would be determined by his bat as he would be back in Triple A for a 4th season. Across the minors last year he did ok, hitting .248/.305/.344 over 177 PAs while other players on the Mets system started to move up around him.

He was granted free agency at the end of the season and hasn’t signed with a team yet for 2020. A long time fixture in the Mets system, since he was 18, we wish him nothing but the best and hope that he make it back to the majors with another team in 2020.

The New York Mets invited 25 minor league players to major league spring training last year with Non-Roster Invites. Like most years the group was a mix of veterans looking for another chance and prospects looking to get more experience. Last year’s group included the 2019 Rookie of the Year winner, a player who couldn’t wait to get released from the Mets, and a player who the Mets essentially forced to retire. Like everything else with the Mets of the last few years it was a mixture of terrific luck and talent swirled with front office mismanagement.

I’m sure I missed a few players as the Mets made several signings last year during spring, if you know someone I forgot, drop their name below. And now the list:

Tim Tebow: Tebow sells tickets, we know this about him. It’s easy to forget that before breaking his hand in 2018, he had a decent year, hitting .273/.336/.399. That didn’t continue in Syracuse last year as he hit .163/.240/.255. He currently has a NRI to this year’s spring training big league camp.

Rymer Liriano: Liriano was one of several former major league outfielders trying to get back to the big leagues with the Mets last year. He ended up playing in 82 games in Syracuse hitting .209/.346/.403

Rajai Davis: Davis saw some major league time with the Mets last year while everything was falling apart. He got into 29 games getting 26 PA’s hitting .200/.231/.400. He’s currently a free agent

Gregor Blanco: Blanco did not see time with the major league club after spring training, playing 118 games in Syracuse getting 426 PA’s, hitting .246/.339/.745. He recently accepted a job with Major League Baseball, ending his major league career where he saw games between 2008-2018.

Dilson Herrera: Herrera was a huge surprise all season in the Mets minor system making a tremendous comeback, yet the Mets never called him up. In 117 games and 460 PA’s he hit .248/.330/.501. He currently has a NRI with the Baltimore Orioles

Danny Espinosa: Espinosa failed to make the majors for a second straight year. He saw a lot of playing time in Syracuse getting 542 PAs over 129 games hitting .256/.338/.440. He is currently a free agent.

Gavin Cecchini: Drafted by the Mets in 2012, it looks like his time with the Mets organization is over as he was granted free agency after the season season. He saw time with the Mets in 2016 and 2017 and for various reasons since then couldn’t make it back. Across three levels in the Mets system last year he he played in 48 games and had 177 PAs with a slash line of .248/.305/.344. This past winter he went to the Australian Baseball League and had 76 PAs over 19 games and hit .278/.303/.417.

Pete Alonso: Probably the most well known player on this list. It’s worth remembering at the start of last season there were voices in and outside of the Mets system calling for Alonso to start the year in the minors to manipulate his playing time. Luckily that didn’t happen and Alonso went on to hit over 50 homers, win the Home Run Derby, win the rookie of the year and coin “LFGM”. He had one of the best years a Met could have, one that we’ll all remember forever.

Ali Sanchez: Ali is a catching prospect that is high in the Mets system and because of both being not ready yet and the team wanting to get him regular reps, he remained largely unaffected by the Mets catching drama that plagued the team in Queens for much of the season. In Binghamton last year over 71 games and 294 PAs he hit .278/.337/.337. The good times didn’t continue when he was promoted to Syracuse, at a whopping 4.9 years below the average player age. In 65 PAs (21 games) he hit .179/.277/.250. Sanchez is now on the 40-man roster and will be back in camp this year.

Colton Plaia: Colton saw some playing time in Syracuse this year over 43 games hitting .152/.200/.224. He was granted free agency in November.

Devin Mesoraco: This was one of the harder to understand stories of the Spring last year. The Mets knew that Travis d’Arnaud was not ready for the start of the season, and should have just put Mesoraco on the roster, instead they placed him in AAA. He thought he had a deal that if he wasn’t going to make the major league club, he would be released, which is a normal thing for baseball teams to do with the type of NRI that Mesoraco had + his history as a major league hitter. The Mets refused to bend and instead forced Mesoraco into an early retirement. This probably has impacted the type of veteran players the Mets have been able to get to come to Spring Training this year. Who wants to get played by an organization that was trying to stack and trap former MLB players on their new AAA club?

Steve Villines: A relief pitcher for the Mets who is still part of the organization, Villines pitched in 41 games last year. In his 28 for Binghamton, he was wonderful, pitching 45.0 innings with a 1.80 ERA and a 1.067 WHIP. In Syracuse things didn’t go so well in 13 games, 16.0 innings with a 7.31 ERA and a 1.938 WHIP.

Patrick Mazeika: Mazeika has another spring training invite with the Mets this upcoming season as well. The 25 year old played 116 games in Binghamton last year with 462 PAs hitting .245/.312/.426. He then went to the Arizona Fall League where in 13 games and 48 PAs he hit .174/.208/.239. We’ll say more about him later on in our 2020 preview article series.

Joshua Torres: Currently a free agent, Joshua saw 17 games and 29.0 innings with Binghamton this year were he posted a 7.45 ERA and a 1.621 WHIP. This winter he has pitched in 15 games with 15.0 innings of work for Mayaguez in the Puerto Rico league posting a 4.80 ERA and he has 1.0 innings of no run ball in 2 games in the Caribbean World Series.

Corey Taylor: Still with the Mets, currently does not have an invite to major league camp. Taylor, drafted in 2015 was limited due to injuries last year and missed time between May and September. When he was playing, he did well, posting a 2.37 ERA over 19.0 innings and 10 games. Maybe he’ll find his way back into the conversation this summer depending on how the Mets bullpen does.

Hector Santiago: I was rooting for Santiago last year, from Newark, NJ where I spent the 9 years of my life as a teacher, 7 years as a resident. The Mets signed Santiago as rotation depth and needed him for the bullpen, bringing him up for 8 games and 8.0 innings where he posted a 6.75 ERA. He was given free agency in June and signed with the White Sox where he he pitched in 11 games with 25.2 innings posting a 6.66 ERA. He currently has an NRI deal with the Tigers for the 2020 season.

Ryder Ryan: He is still kicking with the Mets and was the #23 prospect in the Mets system last year according to Baseball America. He had a successful 2019 pitching in 44.1 innings with a 3.05 ERA and a 1.263 WHIP. He doesn’t have an official NRI this season, but because he was part of those trades from a few years ago and his age, 25, I wouldn’t be surprised if he slips into some split squad games. Depending on how the Mets bullpen goes this year, if Ryan is successful in the minors he could force himself onto the 40 man at some point this year.

David Peterson: Thanks to all of the trades from the last 14 months, Peterson is now the Mets #1 starting pitching prospect in terms of a combination of talent and age. (departures of Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods-Richardson helped create this situation). Peterson has another NRI to Mets camp this year. Last year he pitched in 24 games and 116.0 innings with a 4.19 ERA and 1.345 WHIP. He then pitched in the Arizona Fall League for 13.0 innings over 4 games with a 3.46 ERA.

Ryan O’Rourke: The former Twin signed a minor league deal with the Mets before last year and saw some time at the major league level, like literally just some time. He got into 2 games totaling 1.1 innings allowed 3 walks and nothing else. In Syracuse he had a 3.27 ERA over 36 games and 44 innings before he was granted free agency and signed back with the Twins organization who let him go at the end of the season.

Anthony Kay: We had a lot of high hopes for Kay going into last season but he was traded at the deadline with Woods-Richardson for Marcus Stroman. In the short term, this is a good deal for the Mets that they made weaker by not resigning Zack Wheeler. This half step in / half step out mentality with prospects in the long run will hurt the Mets as Anthony Kay continues to develop with the Blue Jays. We wish him nothing but the best and miss him in our system.

Arquimedes Caminero: Another signing for pitching depth, Arquimedes never made it to the major league level last year. He pitched in 17 games in Syracuse totaling 17.2 innings with a 5.09 ERA. He was released from the Mets in the middle of the season and then he transitioned to the Mexican Baseball League.

Luis Avilan: From the moment the Mets signed Avilan to a non-roster deal it was inevitable that he would make it to the major league club. With the departure of Blevins, the only lefty the Mets had in the bullpen was Zamora so Avilan was brought in to directly compete for that role. Avilan ended up pitching in 45 games and 32.0 innings with the Mets with a 5.06 ERA, a huge departure from his career ERA over 3.28. He is currently in Yankees camp with a NRI.

Adeiny Hechavarria: Signed to be a defensive depth, Adeiny saw quite a bit of playing time with the Mets getting 151 PA’s and slashing a .204/.252/.359. Once the Mets released him in August he signed with the Braves and hit .328/.400/.639 all while bashing the Mets as a franchise. The Mets deserved every bit of it.

Carlos Gomez: Things come full circle and Gomez, traded by the Mets after his rookie year, almost acquired by the Mets for Flores in 2015, came back to the Mets and saw some playing time this year getting into 34 games and 99 PAs hitting .198/.278/.337. He retired at the end of the year.

P.J. Conlon: The Mets released the pitcher from Belfast in the middle of the season, who didn’t make it back to the majors. Across various Mets levels last year he pitched in 13 games and 14.2 innings with a 4.91 ERA.

Ths is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.

Tomas Nido is probably the most well known player on this list (and this list includes Pete Alonso) because it doesn’t feel like Nido qualifies as a prospect anymore, but he did before the 2019 season. Nido, drafted in 2012, first saw major league action in the 2017 season. BA wrote before the 2019 season that due to the Mets catching situation in 2018, he got an early call up, despite opening his season in AA. Both Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki got injured. Nido didn’t use the situation to standout, hitting .167/.200/.238.

BA writes that Nido will stick around the MLB because of his defensive skills, not because of his hitting. They expected him to spend his time in 2019 at Syracuse, downplaying his age (25) because “catchers develop later”.

What BA didn’t predict, is that the Mets are the Mets and they would Mets up their catching situation in new ways in 2019. When BA wrote the prospect book, the Mets had already traded Plawecki away but had committed to d’Arnaud as the back up and Wilson Ramos as the starter. This was also before the Mets went out and signed Devin Mesoraco.

Travis d’Arnaud started off hurt, then got injured, the Mets lost Mesoraco due to their own incompetence and Nido saw a lot of playing time, getting into 50 games and having 144 PA’s hitting .191/.231/.316. Which isn’t good but he’s not supposed to be an offensive minded back up catcher.

Right now Nido is marked as the back up catcher to Ramos going into 2020. Nido will face pressure to protect that role throughout spring training with an old Mets-favorite in town on an NRI, Rene Rivera. Nido has earned both his grade of 40 and his risk of Low from BA, we aren’t expecting any surprises in 2020. (But it is the Mets so who knows)

This is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.

Most of Baseball America’s pre-2019 write up about Jordan Humphreys was about injuries which ended up as an interesting back drop to how his 2019 season went. After being drafted, Jordan was noted for his control. In 2017 he was dominating in Columbia with a 1.42 ERA over 11 starts and 70.0 innings with a 0.72 ERA before he needed Tommy John. He then missed the rest of 2017 and 2018.

Baseball America noted that he could rise back up through the Mets system quickly if he came back strong from injury. But that rise had to wait – he had another surgery in the off-season before 2019 which pushed his debut back until July with the Gulf Coast Rookie team. Basically he spent 2019 in extended spring training.

But at the end of the season a lot of good things happened. He dominated in 4 outings, 11.2 innings, in the Arizona Fall League with a 0.77 ERA and a 1.029 WHIP. He was also added to the 40-man roster.

Depending on inning control this year, we’ll probably see him quite a bit at the start of Spring Training while the Mets figure out where to put him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets shut down at some point in the season as he tries to get his arm strength back (actually I’ll be more surprised if this doesn’t happen). He’s still young, the Mets drafted him in 2015 at 19 years old and while injuries have allowed his stock in the system to slide a bit, the Mets have traded most of their older pitching talent away.

We are rooting for you in 2020 Jordan!

This is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.

The Mets traded two interesting prospects for J.D. Davis last year: Ross Adolph and Luis Santana (#13 on this list). A week later they signed Jed Lowrie and it felt like the Mets gave up two players that could make the farm system interesting, for nothing. But Jed Lowrie essentially never played and J.D. Davis had a break out year. So it looks like things went well for the Mets on this trade.

Ross Adolph delivered an initially outcry of angst from Mets fans when he was traded because of his pro-debut season in 2018. The Mets drafted him in the 12th round but as BA notes, he ended up ranking third in the NYPL in slugging, .509, and OPS, .857. Difficult to do because the Cyclones play in a tough park for left handed power. He hit 7 homers on the road and 13 triples. He is also “the system’s best defensive outfielder thanks to all-out abandon, plus athleticism and above-average range in center field”. In a system lacking true defensive outfielders (and a system that just traded Kelenic) this felt like a loss. BA concludes with “if he can develop an average bat with average power, he could have a long career as an extra outfielder or possible starter.”

2019 (Low A/HighA): 460 PA, 382 AB, 7 HR, .228/.357/.366, .723 OPS

While his homer power dipped in his first full season of pro-ball he continued to put up a high on base percentage and hit enough doubles and triples to still put up an above 700 OPS at 22 years old. Right now it looks like he is more towards a career of an extra outfielder, and this is contingent at what he does at the next level. I don’t know enough about the Astros system to make a prediction as to where he could go.

A lot of the J.D. Davis trade depends on Luis Santana, but if Ross Adolph only becomes a defensive minded extra outfield bat, then the Mets came out of the deal as winners. We’ll continue this conversation in 5 days when we get to Santana.

This is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.

After two straight days of reviewing prospects that are no longer with the Mets (Adam Hill and Eric Hanhold) today we get to review a player still with the team (before tomorrow we go back to players no longer on the team with Ross Adolph). Will Toffey was the second play acquired in the Jeurys Familia trade with Bobby Wahl.

BA noted before the 2019 season that Toffey “has an outstanding batting approach that helped him run a 16 percent walk rate in 2018 and a .375 on base percentage in pro ball” and that “he makes consistent hard, line-drive contact that equates to an average hit tool with gap power.” They speculate that he needs to develop more regular power to see playing time at the major league level and that he should be in Syracuse for the 2019 season. When the Mets acquired him from Oakland in 2018, he was playing in their A+ league, where Toffey was almost a year older than the average player. The Mets sent him to Binghamton where he was 1.3 years younger than average.

2019 Binghamton: 323 PA, 269 AB, .219/.347/.349, .696 OPS

First off, Toffey hit as advertised last year, putting up an on base percentage way higher than his batting average. That’s a positive sign. His power just wasn’t there, which is the opposite of a positive sign. Unlike BA’s prediction, Toffey did not get bumped to Syracuse last year and was the average age in Double A last year. Unless some crazy roster stuff happens, he’ll probably get bumped up to Syracuse this year.

Like many people on Twitter, I was surprised by a specific line in a press release from the Bloomberg campaign yesterday:

Mr. Met is going to be at the Bloomberg campaign office today? Why?

This just seems like an odd thing for the Mets to do on several levels, which is probably why it doesn’t seem like such an odd thing for the Mets to do.

First, like most places in America, Mets fans are fairly split on politics. No data to back up this claim, just anecdotal experiences from sitting with people in the outfield. You hear things pretty far to the left (hi, that’s me!) and you hear things pretty far to the right. Baseball in general among specific demographics tends to lean more conservative (fan bases tend to be older, whiter, which leads to this, not that anything about baseball is conservative itself).

Bloomberg is also fairly divisive as a New York figure as well. He faces criticism on stop and frisk (very deserved – remember I lean left) to gun control measures (I support him on this, remember I really lean left).

For a team that can’t seem to find there way out of any scandals this off-season, doing something like this seems to invite another scandal to the plate.

Of course there is one thing Bloomberg could do today that would unite Mets fans from both sides of the political aisle – buy the Mets! Drop out of the race and just save us from the Wilpons.

This is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.

For a second straight day we look at player who is no longer in the Mets organization. Eric Hanhold was DFA’d by the Mets in September to make room for Donnie Hart, a move widely regarded as poor roster management. Eric Hanhold was then picked up by the Orioles who then DFA’d him this winter but no one else picked him up (the Mets let this opportunity to un-do their previous move slip by) so Hanhold is now off the Orioles roster and has an NRI to spring training.

Hanhold was one of the many pitchers acquired by the Mets in their 2017 sell-off. He was traded for an August waiver wire deal with the Brewers for Neil Walker. He threw quite hard and had a hard slider which BA described as “devastating late break and wipeout potential in and out of the strikezone”. They predicted that he would see a lot of time at the major league level in 2019 as an “up and down reliever” pitching himself into more important situations as the year went on.

2019 Minors: 48 G, 63.1 IP, 3.84 ERA, 1.484 WHIP, 7.7 K/9

Baseball America wasn’t write about his playing time in the major league level, but the team did such a bad job with the roster, especially relievers, this isn’t surprising at all. Hanhold had a lot of promise and looked to be one of the better pitchers the Mets acquired in 2017, but it just didn’t work out. Despite being an NRI to Orioles camp, he has a decent chance to break camp with the team or find his way to Baltimore at some point this season. We wish him nothing but the best.

This is the second year where we are walking through the previous season’s Baseball America’s Top Prospect handbook, looking at the all the Mets to see how they are developing against Baseball America’s Projections.

There’s an alternate universe where I start this article something like this:

How neat is it for the Mets, that their #21 and #22 prospects were both drafted in back to back rounds of the 2018 draft out of the same college, South Caroline University?

Adam Hill is the second player on this list that isn’t with the Mets anymore, Chris Viall was the first, he retired last summer. Adam Hill is the first of too many players as we work our way to the top of the list that were traded away last season. Adam Hill was packaged Felix Valerio and Bobby Wahl to the Brewers for Keon Broxton. Keon’s time with the Mets didn’t go swell. Wahl’s time with the Brewers didn’t go so well.

But this article isn’t about them. It’s about Adam Hill, so lets review his time with the Mets before the trade and then let’s look at his first season with the Brewers. Adam Hill was drafted in the 4th round of the 2018 draft. BA notes that he could have been a first round pick but lost his feel for the strike zone. They quote Marc Tramuta, scouting director, as saying Hill reminds him of John Maine. BA concludes by saying “Hill can pitch effectively in short bursts using only his fastball, but to profile as a starter he must develop consistency of his secondary pitches and sharpen his control.”

2018 Brooklyn: 9 G, 15.1 IP, 2.35 ERA, 1.500 WHIP, 15.3 K/9
2019 Wisconsin:26 G, 121.2 IP, 3.92 ERA, 1.381 WHIP, 8.1 K/9

Adam had a successful pro-debut in Brooklyn posting a nice ERA and a dominate K/9 rate. The Brewers have gone all in on using him as a starter and he had a solid year, putting up a lot of innings, with a good ERA and seeing a drop in his WHIP. At 22 in the A ball, he was exactly the average age. I don’t know the Brewers system well at all but I assume he will move up to the Brewers version of the St. Lucie this upcoming year to see if puts up similar numbers. The Mets probably didn’t lose an ace or even a regular starter, but they may have lost a longman, something the Mets have struggled to have the last couple of seasons with consistency.