4/13/18

Q and A - What Is Our Weakest Organization Position


Mike Friere asks -

Looking at the upper levels of the organization, which position do you feel is the weakest moving forward?

           
            Eddie Corona says –

The Met's pipeline and history has always seemed to be pitching heavy. That still seems to hold true. Some of our best and closet prospects to the majors are D. Peterson, Flexen and Oswalt to name a few.

Position players have always seem to be weak area. In our history, we have had so few good to great position player who have come from our farm system but our weakest position specifically is OF and more definitely CF.

Yes we have Nimmo but truthfully is a LF as he doesn't profile with the range or speed of a CF. Unless after years of battling injuries Desmond Lindsay establishes himself as a possible solution to the OF equation, who else is on the CF radar.

Nido gives us hope at the Catcher position, Vientos and  Ronny Mauricio are options for 3b. Smith and Alonzo are options at 1b. Guillermo and Cecchini in the middle of the Diamond.

Our OF choices are slim and CF are even slimmer.


MetsMusing Mack said –

My answer is not knowing the entire minor leagues intimately, but by what I read and hear it would seem outfield would be the weakest area.  With Alonso and Smith at first , Cecchini , Evans, Mazzilli at 2nd numerous shortstops outfield seems the weak link right now.

           
Reese Kaplan says –

Generically the answer is outfield.  There are no clear upper level players who you can confidently declare will make an impact in the majors (Tim Tebow notwithstanding).  The club is flush with middle infielders, have a few good bat no glove third basemen, a pair of good first base prospects, a few catchers and as usual many pitchers.


Chris Soto says –

Without a shadow of a doubt.....the weakest position right now organizationally is OF as you've a couple of could be high impact prospects fallen flat over the years.

Right now the highest caliber OF prospect is Wuilmer Becerra who's still in extended spring training and quite frankly.....shouldn't be considered much of a prospect anymore after numerous injuries have derailed his career. Champ Stuart is in (AA) Binghamton and can still have a future as a speed role player in the MLB.....but that's pretty much his ceiling nowadays. After them is Desmond Lindsay who's in (A+) Port St. Lucie and is coming off an uninspiring 2017 season where injuries led him to only hitting .220 on the season.

The organization does has some hopefuls in the lower levels......the Stanford bros Matt Winaker and Quinn Brodey are a pair of solid college bats that could move quickly through the system together and International Free Agent Signee Adrian Hernandez is said to have some of the best raw power from last season's IFA signing class. However, overall, for a position that usually contains a lot of speed or power in most organizations....the Mets probably have one of the worst collections of OF prospects in baseball right now.


Mike Friere says –

                        I loosely addressed this question within a different article, but I feel that CATCHER is the biggest weakness within the organization.  While most teams can probably say the
same thing due to an overall lack of talent at the position across baseball, the Mets are clearly in need of a talent infusion.   It is a huge advantage to have an above average player at a position that most teams struggle with, as evidenced by Mike Piazza's presence on our roster in the past.

I like a few of the prospects like Thomas Nido, but there are no "sure things" in the system and it is an area that Sandy needs to address moving forward since our TDA/KP platoon will only last one more year before TDA leaves as a free agent in 2020.


11 comments:

Hobie said...

Agree with most that OF locker is the most barren. With a healthy Yo, 4to & Bruce (+ Lagares & Nimmo), that is not an immediate concern however,

No one mention of Kacz?

Mack Ade said...

Still can not get a status report on him

Mack Ade said...

Plawecki - broken hand

Tom Brennan said...

I felt that catching was weakest - with these two injuries, we'll find out just weak.

Nido is certainly solid defensively, but if he hits when a better hitter in Plawecki has struggled so much hitting at the big league level, I will be very surprised. Mazeika did not hit this spring, nor in his first several AA games, and is no Nido defensively. Ali Sanchez is out. Xorge Carillo is not great, but he is also no longer in the organization.

If I were Evans, TJ Rivera, or Cecchini, I might consider switching to catcher. Beats being a career minor leaguer.

Jason Blitz said...

Evans did get some reps catching in spring training. I think he even caught 1 or 2 innings of a spring training game.

Tom Brennan said...

"Unknown", that is true about Evans, but Matt den Dekker threw an inning the other night, but that does not make him a pitcher. Evans catching experience is very limited...he can't catch in the majors right now.

Evans, for one, has to carefully weigh his future - if he thinks he can become a major league IF starting or utility player, he can skip the catcher idea, but if not, and if he could learn to catch, and were good at it, he might secure a super utility role or even a starting catching job in the bigs and have a decent career.

Pablo Grullon said...

I know you don't typically draft for positions of need but I would love for us to address that deficiency by drafting Travis Swaggerty with the 6th pick in the draft. As a college outfielder he should be up in time for when either Bruce or Cespy's contracts expire.

Mack Ade said...

Pablo -

+1

Anthony Carnacchio said...

Alonso*

Eddie from Corona said...

would Wheeler get you JT?

Mike Freire said...

I would consider dealing an extra SP for Realmuto, but not a boatload of prospects like a different site suggested.