When Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets back in 2020, one of his initial goals was to turn the franchise into the East Coast version of the Los Angeles Dodgers. While the Dodgers have made headlines for their ability to sign pretty much any free agent they want lately, the foundation for their success was laid on the back of an elite farm system capable of producing a ton of young talented players.
The Mets have already benefitted from their farm system in recent years, with Mark Vientos, Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and now Nolan McLean making contributions at the big league level. With even more talent on the way, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel has ranked the Mets’ farm system as the best in baseball at this point of the season, while MLB Pipeline declared New York’s system to have the best pitching prospects among all teams.
The Mets recently had six prospects ranked inside of ESPN’s mid-season Top 100 prospect list, headlined by McLean, Jett Williams, Carson Benge and Jonah Tong. McDaniel’s notes in his piece that the Mets could potentially graduate six of their top eight prospects to the major league level by this point next season, which would provide them with a big league roster full of useful young players.
The Mets’ Farm System Has The Organization In An Excellent Position
Thanks to smart decisions by David Stearns and former GM Billy Eppler, the Mets have stockpiled a wave of talented young players coalescing either at Triple-A Syracuse or in the majors, giving them a potential nucleus of a perennial contender. For an organization that has made the postseason in consecutive years just twice in franchise history, that would be a big step towards East Coast Dodgers status.
The Mets could have four big league starters (McLean, Tong, Brandon Sproat and the rehabbing Christian Scott), their future center fielder (Benge), second baseman (Williams) and third baseman (one of the Baty/Mauricio/Vientos group) all in the majors as soon as next summer. That scenario is very exciting for New York, and it also opens up possibilities for the Mets to make a bigger splash in the next year.
While the prospect of all of these young players coming up at the same time is exciting, the law of averages dictates that not all of them will reach their full potential. Mets fans are well aware of the failures of Generation K, Lastings Milledge, Fernando Martinez, Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith to know that having a highly touted prospect doesn’t mean that success will carry over to the majors.
There is also the matter of existing contractual commitments to starting rotation members (Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes are under contract through 2027, while David Peterson is a logical extension candidate) and position players (Brandon Nimmo, Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor are all signed through at least 2030, while a new deal with Pete Alonso could add him to that group). Simply put, there won’t be enough roster room to keep the existing players and add the entire new wave in one shot.
This is where Stearns will be paid the big bucks to make an aggressive consolidation trade to add a player at a position of need, such as an ace. The Milwaukee Brewers famously acquired Christian Yelich during Miami’s fire sale after the 2017 season, giving up a group of prospects (Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison and Jordan Yamamoto) that looked far better at the time than they actually ended up being as Marlins.
If Stearns decides to go for a big trade over the winter, it wouldn’t be shocking to see one of the names featured on the Top 100 list get moved to acquire that new star. There are a lot of possibilities available to the Mets because of their strong farm system, which has moved them one step closer to the initial Cohen vision of becoming the East Coast Dodgers.
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