Next Mets?

 

In the midst of a lost season -- where the only positives appear to be the development of rookies such as Carson Benge and AJ Ewing — the Mets recently traded for or promoted several other young players that, at first glance, appear to be on track to join those former 2025 Rumble Ponies.

Considered the big prize in the deal sending AJ Minter to Minnesota, power-hitting Billy Amick has a catchy nickname and, so far at Binghamton, the productivity to back it up.  "Billy Barrels"' five home runs and 13 RBI in his first seven games caught my attention.  The Twins' 2nd round draft pick in 2024 after crushing 24 home runs at Tennessee and leading them to the College World Series crown, he hit more for average in the low minors.  This year, it's pedal to the metal time again -- 23 homers in 86 games for AA Wichita, while striking out roughly a third of time.  Sunday, the swing was sweet and the power very real as you can see below: this swing produced a game-changing three run homer as the Rumble Ponies completed a six-game sweep over Hartford.

Emelien Pitre also arrived in a deadline deal.  The suburban Montreal product was part of the package the Rays sent back for Freddy Peralta.  While not a slugger on Amick's level, he makes really good contact, hitting .302 at two levels of Tampa Bay's system (while striking out just 13% of the time) -- and over .400 the week he made his Mets organizational debut.

Mitch Voit (below) outpaced the impressive Pitre last week -- as well as the week before.  The Mets first round draft choice (out of Michigan) a year ago, he was just promoted to Binghamton after lighting it up at Single-A Brooklyn.  Playing against tougher competition hasn't held him back; in fact, it's been the opposite.  Voit's hit over .500 and was just named the Eastern League Player of the Week for the second week in a row!

Now our final "face of the future," Jefferson Rojas.  The Mets liked this Dominican native enough that he was the only player sent by the Cubs for Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor.  Considered a potential "five tool player," the 21 year old has gotten off to the slowest start among the newcomers, but impressed sports writers enough to rank him the Mets #1 prospect.