Reese Kaplan -- The Best of the Best Among Prospect Hurlers

Going back to the days of the late 1960s when the Mets found themselves transformed from a laughingstock into World Series winners it was the result of some timely hitting but more importantly they took on the role of pitching savants.  Gone were the days of guys unqualified to handle mound duties and instead you saw Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and even Nolan Ryan emerge into every fifth day hurlers as good or better than what the opponents had to offer.  

Nowadays the Mets are doing it again, not just with sheer pitching talent but also with a dedicated lab to help make previously unheralded throwers become major league pitchers capable of retiring the best of the best.  Going forward into October this year and then into the 2026 season the Mets will build upon mounds men who few saw coming from their former roles as middle of the road warm bodies, relievers turned starters and players who excelled overseas but without the proof they could do so again in the USA.

Now you can’t win every pitching battle and you are working with a series of short term conquests to fulfill that every fifth day dream.  As a result there will be some free agent walk-offs happening and other pitchers whose work has been serviceable but not outstanding.  As a result David Stearns and company need to evaluate the cream of the minor league pitching crop to ascertain who is worth keeping and whose best role might indeed be trade bait to bring in players to address other needs.  Let’s have a look at the 2025 minor league arms of note.

Minor League Pitchers

• Zach Thornton has surprised a great many people with his performance in 2025.  The big southpaw is current sitting at a combined 6-1 record with 71 Ks in 64 IP vs. just 9 BBs.  His ERA is a praise worthy 2.39 and his WHIP an eye popping 0.734.  To be fair, he’s never posted numbers like these in the past and at age 23 only reaching as high as a partial season in AA he’s a bit more mature than some of his competitors, but he’s made a number of folks reconsider his potential.
• Jack Wenninger is a Binghamton teammate of Thornton where he also has 6 wins on the 2025 season to go along with 69 strikeouts in 57+ innings pitched, just 13 walks and a WHIP of 0.994.  At age 23 he’s put together by far his best season of his pro career and as such could have turned himself into a prospect for the Mets or for David Stearns’ trade block.
• Nate Dohm is a right handed starter who’s split 2025 between Port St. Lucie and Brooklyn where his 3-3 record doesn’t wow you, but if you look closer he’s sporting a combined 2.95 ERA with better than a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio.  He’s been a bit hittable and as such between the earned bases and the free passes his WHIP is a bit higher than some others at 1.289.  He doesn’t look like ace material but the 2025 numbers should make an acquiring team salivate a little bit.
• Nolan McLean is another Mets farmhand who was a two way player, but this one they asked to focus himself on pitching.  How did that work out?  Well, in 2025 combined as mostly a starting pitcher between Binghamton and Syracuse he’s got a record of 5-3 with a 1.98 ERA.  In 59 IP he has 62 Ks but his walk numbers are a bit high at 26.  Still, they’re not getting many hits off McLean as he has only allowed 43 of them and kept his WHIP at a nice 1.169.  You’d expect he’d spend his 24 year old season in 2026 in Syracuse, so you have to consider his future value as a Mets pitcher vs. his current value as a Mets trade chip.
• Jonah Tong put together a memorable 2024 season split between three teams.  Overall he was 6-4 with a 3.03 ERA but what really stood out were his 160 strikeouts in just 113 innings pitched.  That’s pretty stellar.  Then came 2025 where in Binghamton he’s gotten even better.  Right now he’s a 5-3 pitcher with a 1.99 ERA.  Then look at the strikeouts — so far he’s whiffed 91 in just 54+ innings of work.  Can you say, “Wow!”  He will likely be promoted to Syracuse this season to see how he handles the next level of competition but in most people’s books he’s the clear number one starting pitcher in the minors.
• Brandon Sproat used to hold that title.  In 2024 he was just killing it in Brooklyn and Binghamton, but then came an initial hard stop in Syracuse.  He returned there in 2025 and the once seemingly invincible hurler has an ERA over 5.00 with strikeout and walk numbers on the poor side of the ledger.  Still, given his firm record prior to this season he still has trade value but nowhere near what it would have been a year ago.  Is Sproat at his wall, turning into a failed top prospect or is it better to bundle him with others in a deal?

It would appear that if in 2026 you no longer have Paul Blackburn and Griffin Canning on the roster, you may have some starting pitching slots to fill.  Granted, Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea are on multi-year deals, so if you pair them with Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes and David Peterson, the Mets are probably OK if not deep in starting pitching.  Still, folks need to see how both of the currently rehabbing pitchers perform before assessing the risk in trading away top hurlers who could come back to haunt you in the future on someone else’s mound.