Tom Brennan - METS' HIGH LEVEL MINOR LEAGUERS' 2020 FRUSTRATION

Are You Majoring In Minor Things?

I'll admit it.  Before joining this Mets' site as a writer somewhere around 2012, I did not pay much attention to the Mets' minor leagues, beyond knowing how elite prospects like Jake and Steve and Noah and Zack were coming along.

This site's articles got me much more attuned.

I came to love looking at how guys were doing and in the off season, what the next season might bring.

Following Jeff McNeil through his transformation from skinny high caliber singles hitter to a more beefed up, but injured, guy for the better part of 2 minor league seasons in 2016 and 2017, but always feeling that, once he beefed up, and if he could stay healthy, he would be at least a super utility player one day for the Mets.

Remove the word Utility, and you have what he currently is: 

A Super Player for the Mets.

Brandon Nimmo always seemed to underwhelm in his early minors career, and many saw another Mets Draft Bust brewing, but he has confounded me and delightfully performed as a Met.

So, with my increased focus on the minors, I can imagine how bummed out certain high minors guys were this year...guys who, before COVID, I was wondering if there was a soon-coming major league stint in their future.

PATRICK MAZEIKA is one: 

He had a very fine 2017 season for St Lucie, with a short, highly effective stint at AA.  He ended that season a career .300 minor league hitter.

In 2018 and 2019, he hovered close to .240 in AA, puzzling because his K numbers were on the low side, but he showed increased power in 2019 with 25 doubles and 16 HRs in 413 at bats in the sometimes freezer known as Binghamton.  

I wondered if the lefty hitting catcher could figure out a way to bump that average up in 2020 to around .280 in AAA, to make him a possible call up, especially since as a catcher whose skills were originally maligned, he threw out a very decent 32% of runners in 2018 and 2019.

Then 2020 interrupted that progress.  Now, just having turned 27, does he have the reserve inner "juice" to make it to the big leagues as a back up C/1B?  Without 2020 games as a measuring stick, it is hard to know.

TIM TEBOW is another:

I know, "Not HIM again. Guy's a joke. Let's get real."  

It was always very unlikely he'd have a long MLB career...much more likely a September call up, get in some games, and say Sayonara.

After all, short of about 4 injuries to Mets' outfielders, how could anyone imagine him getting a call up and coming anywhere close offensively to any of them (except, of course, Billy Hamilton).  Many fans nevertheless would have loved to see him get some ABs in some meaningless games.

He was hitting surprisingly well in 2018 in AA for several weeks when he got injured and missed the rest (a big portion) of the season, time he desperately needed to develop. Pushed up to AAA in 2019, that lack of playing time and more injuries resulted in a miserable performance, light years from MLB quality.   

In spring training 2020, though, Tebow got on base 7 of 18 times with a HR.  I for one would have liked to see how he would have done in 2020 in AAA, to see if he could do enough for a brief, long-shot September call up.  But 2020 evaporated.  Now, per Sandy Alderson, Tim will carry on in at least into early 2021, albeit a year older.  Who knows what he'll do?  We'll see in Spring Training.

QUINN BRODEY - to me, the 3rd rounder's bat through 2019 has been disappointing (career .247), but he did have a pretty decent 2019 between A and AA (266/.323/.403).  I wanted to see if he could ramp that up in AAA in 2020 and be a legit Mets 4th or 5th OF soon.  But, of course....."What 2020?"

ALI SANCHEZ - how would the man with the slowly growing bat have improved with, say, 120 games in AAA in 2020?  Well, instead we got a short MLB glimpse of him when Tomas Nido went down.  He sure wasn't ready, by what I saw.  So who knows what he'll be in 2021, assuming the Mets retain him?  Had he had a normal 2020 season, we'd have a better read.

PITCHERS?  

Not much to say there.  The Mets' pitching staff was so atrocious in 2020, that if certain guys like: 

MATT BLACKHAM (21-9, 2.38 with 284 Ks in 292 innings in the minors through 2019) could have helped, one would have thought Blackham would have showed up in 2020.  Will he make it in 2021?  Not with the Mets, he won't, having gone elsewhere.

RYLEY GILLIAM - he shot through the minors in his first full season in 2019, got clobbered in AAA, and then got shut down. Still, just turning 24 in August 2020, I wondered if he would shrug off his AAA failure of 2019 and dazzle in 2020, but whoops, no 2020.  I guess we'll find out in spring training 2021 if he will be a quality addition to the Mets pen, or the next Tyler Bashlor.  My guess is in the new Cohen reign, Gilliam will be honing in AAA, trying to show he can be effective on a big league level. 

Who else might you have wondered about, focusing only on guys who you might have thought, at the end of 2019, would have had a legit shot at making the Mets in 2020, if 2020's minors had not been capsized by COVID?

Miami, of course, had to dig deep early on when they had COVID rip through their club, and guys you might not have expected to see until later in 2020, at the earliest, suddenly got to pitch big league ball.  With reasonable, and surprising, success.

Seeing that, it made me wonder if, God forbid, that had happened to the Mets, would any of their farmhands (besides two delightful 2020 performers, Andres Gimenez and Luis Guillorme) have been able to similarly step in and perform?  Franklyn Kilome sure didn't.  He did fan 13 in 11 innings, but that 2.03 WHIP was not a formula for success.  He (under)performed like a predecessor named Akeel Morris, whose career (to my knowledge) is over.

Let's hope 2021 is normal baseball.  Considering pre-spring training starts in just 3 1/2 months, a normal 2021 baseball season is far from a foregone conclusion, even with vaccine progress.  My guess right now is it will be delayed at least a month.  

Let's hope and pray for a much brighter 2021 for everyone.