Emilien Pitre
CANADIAN EMILIEN PITRE CAN REALLY HIT, YES?
BEFORE I START ON THE FAB FOUR INFIELD PROSPECTS
TUESDAY: Mets win a 10 inning thriller. This Mets team has gelled and would be downright dangerous if Juan Soto was in the middle of the line up.
Meanwhile, Binghamton and St Lucie combined for 18 runs, Brooklyn and Syracuse combined for two.
Jon Santucci pitched great after allowing a first inning HR to a very strong AAA hitter. He is adjusting. Now…
BACK TO PITRE, WHO IS HITTING .354 IN 17 GAMES POST-TRADE, WITH ONLY ONE K EVERY 11 PAs, BUT JUST ONE METS SYSTEM XBH SO FAR.
Here is how I see the middle infielders (and 3rd base) on the Mets roster playing out by 2028, and actually sooner:
But first, keep this in mind…
Elian Peña, $5 million bonus baby, just got promoted to High A Brooklyn. FAST!! He only turns 19 in October.
The last 18 year old position player promoted by the Mets to High A?
Yeah, I can’t think of one, either. Like, ever. Gooden did…but he pitched.
Pena remarkably skipped past the FCL from the DSL, straight to St Lucie, and posted a tremendous .388 OBP in St Lucie this year.
So, my projected IF roster - how does it look?
Between Jefferson Rojas, Mitch Voit, Emilien Pitre, and Elian Peña, I’d be somewhat surprised if Francisco Lindor is still a Met in 2028. But he is back playing like Lindor, and you don’t discard stars.
AND…THE TWO VERY OLD MEN?
Marcus Semien’s days are numbered.
Jorge Polanco’s days are numbered. (I now call him Pol-Ankle)
Both have their Mets remaining playing days numbered, in very small digits.
Back to the four kids…
All four (Rojas, Pitre, Voit, and Pena) are very promising middle infielders.
First 3? They do not strike out much, which is absolutely key. Rojas is simply bombing away in AA, and already deserves a AAA promotion.
So does Voit. Pitre is already there, n’est pas?
The first 3 look extremely promising in every aspect of the game, except a bit low on power from Voit and Pitre, so far, as MLB is a power hitters’ league that lusts for power, but their power will normalize soon.
I see all three as promising starting MILF’s for the Mets fairly soon.
Maybe Voit get an outfield glove.
The fourth, Elian, is being appropriately rushed, so he has fanned once per game, in 2026, and that’s is OK. And he has a decent .303 OBP in his first 6 Brooklyn games.
That K rate will drop as he gets a little less rushed.
Plus Elian had led off all year for Lucie, and hence had compiled more PAs per game. Which accelerates development. His 94 St Lucie Ks in 439 PAs is a very good rate at age 18.
He is more than surviving the fast promotion challenge. He is thriving.
His defense (decidedly “I’m 18” shaky this year) will normalize in 2027.
The first 3 dudes are more advanced than Pena and will be METS starting players before, or by, opening day 2028.
I’d say all 3 will show up in Queens WELL BEFORE 2028…
…just like Benge and Ewing hurtled upward.
I am betting first half 2027 for all three.
Pena, the fourth, will show up by mid 2028, or opening day 2029.
Lindor? Aging, too, like the somewhat older Semien and Polanco. But far more dangerous still.
FL will be turning 34 in 2028. He is still owed $33 million per year for FIVE YEARS, starting in 2027, and those 5 years span ages 33-37.
Few baseball players are ever worth that money in that age bracket.
Last chance as I see it for the Mets in 2027, or even this off season, to deal Lindor and not eat huge contractual $, before his age really catches up to him.
Like it quickly did with Happy Jose.
The fine Jose Reyes decidedly downshifted performance-wise at age 34, and collapsed in a heap to .189 at age 35.
So, it is in my view a big risk to keep Lindor at his $$ past mid-2027.
If he is hot, but the Mets are out of contention by 2027 trade deadline, he could go then.
Or, trade him this off-season.
Call up the cheap, talented kids in 2027.
Out with the aging, in with the low-cost youths.
A gamble? For sure. The youth could flop, of course, or sputter a bit.
But Lindor’s 33 RBIs in 289 ABs while hitting .239?
Maybe Jefferson Rojas could do that in 2027 instead.
Or Voit. Or Pitre.
Moving on…
WANDY ASIGEN? Late 2029 or opening day 2030.
He’s 16, reader dude, so relax.
Meanwhile, before I go, there are four more…
Sammy Stafura, Boston Baro, Trey Snyder and Jack the Ripper Reimer all say, “Don’t forget me!” All have to be healthier and/or do better.
Jack the Ripper is the closest to throwing his hat in the Queens Ring.
All four have real potential if they stay healthy, which 3 of those 4 have struggled with.
So, there you have it.
25 comments:
I clicked to read this and got a Google warning
They must know you
I see 2027 as Bichette on 3B then Rojas in 2028 and the need of a bridge second baseman until Voit is ready.
Feel free to find room for Pitre here.
Tom, I disagree with your assessment. To me, it’s Pitre or Voit, not both. I also hope for Amick to stabilize the strikeouts after this year as it was his first year in pro ball. Lastly, yesterday you told us about Collins and if he is for real, could be a factor.
As for Semien and Polanco, Polanco is 31 so I could hope for a bit of a bounce back. Semien is washed up.
Prospects are getting flipped/traded this off-season watch...... I wouldn't mind Voit at 2B and Rojas at 3B in future if possible.
Ironic that they Mets went from virtually no infielders but Voit in the minors with a major league future to too many meeting that criterion in such a short period of time. It looks like the bullpen Stearns put together to start this season has paid dividends twice: once in their own performance, and then again at the trade deadline.. Not bad.
I'm reaching out to Seattle this offseason and discussing moving some of this infield depth for a good SP. The only untouchable is Voit. The teenager only goes for someone like Kirby. Anyone else should be available, including Mauricio and Baty. I think Stearns acquired guys like Sammy S., Rojas and Petrie to build towards such a move.
I am seeing Polanco = the injured Cespedes, until he proves he isn’t permanently disabled.
I had zero idea why it did that. I actually had some French wording in there because of Pitre and his French background. So I don’t know if Google flagged it for that reason. So I made a few changes and it worked.
If Pitre does not add power, he will be an excellent utility player.
Pitre could become a super sub.
It will be interesting off season.
I think you make a lot of sense here. Something that I myself only rarely accomplish LOL
They do get Megill and Garrett back next spring. A big help. And Ross has shown signs of recent life in AAA.
I’m sorry I don’t understand all this hate on Lindor for the season? I asked chat GPT and this is what I got.
The three prominent players who had hamate surgery right around the same time in February were:
* Francisco Lindor, Mets, left hamate
* Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks, right hamate
* Jackson Holliday, Orioles, hamate
MLB specifically identified those three together at the time.
You may be thinking of Kansas City because Vinnie Pasquantino later suffered a hamate injury, but he’s the Royals’ first baseman, not their shortstop. Bobby Witt Jr. is Kansas City’s shortstop, and his significant 2026 injury was to his right knee, not his hamate.
How the three have hit month by month
Here is the really interesting comparison, because all three were coming back from essentially the same type of hand/wrist surgery
*Lindor played only five MLB games in June. His season was further disrupted by a left calf strain, which put him on the IL beginning April 23, so we can’t attribute all of his early struggles to the hamate surgery.
The month-by-month numbers are current through the latest available games around August 25-26.
What jumps out
Carroll recovered the best initially. He came out of the gate crushing the ball: .300/.411/.563 in April for a .973 OPS. His power looked essentially unaffected by the hamate surgery. He then had that bizarre July collapse (.163), but he’s rebounded strongly in August with a .543 slugging percentage and .924 OPS.
Lindor’s situation is more complicated. He struggled in April, then suffered the calf injury and missed roughly two months. But since getting back, the power has returned. In July he hit 6 HR with 17 RBI and an .861 OPS, followed by another 4 HR so far in August. That’s encouraging because hamate surgery is notorious for temporarily reducing grip strength and power.
Holliday has had the roughest recovery. He didn’t get back to the majors until May. July was spectacular, .368 with a .500 OBP, but August has been brutal at .165/.221/.266. His season power production remains relatively light.
So if we’re specifically asking “whose bat has recovered best from the hamate injury?”, I’d rank them so far:
1. Corbin Carroll
2. Francisco Lindor
3. Jackson Holliday
And there’s an interesting wrinkle with Lindor: his July power surge suggests his hand may finally have gotten completely over the surgery, despite the calf injury wrecking the first half of his season.
He is our second to next hall of famer(after Keith). The best shortstop in our history to play the position. His numbers if he stays healthy should be close to last years.
Zozo, to your point about the calf, Lindor would have needed essentially six weeks of spring training to regain his timing and another few for his normal big inning of the year slump.
In 1953, returning from being shot down flying in the Korean War, Ted Williams went for 6 in his first 6 games back. That was him easing back in. .
He went 36 for 85 (.424) the rest of the way. No 6 weeks needed for him.
Very good discussion.and sensible disagreements. It would be great if the players sorted themselves out so the FO didn't have to do it, but it rarely works that way :-) I assume the hitting coaches will work with Pitre to get line-drive level lift into his swing. It would be interesting to see what his velocity numbers are. They have to be high enough for lift to be the right strategy, which i am simply assuming they are.
In many ways the biggest surprise for me is that we now have several potential solutions at 1B: Young, Amick, Collins, Reimer. We could use some power and a RH bat.
I do think eating Semiens salary is a big ask, especially if we have to do the same for Polanco.
I don't know if I would support exercising the option on Robert. Add up the salaries of Semien, Polanco and Robert and you have 60+ million going for players who are well beyond their prime (Semien) and others (Polanco and Robert) who can't stay on the field.
I don't think Semien is blocking anyone unless Voit wins the job outright to start the season, otherwise he will start at 2B and Voit will replace him by June provided Voit performs well enough in Syracuse at the start of the season.
Semien will be a bat off the bench and a utility guy next year. He will be bought out thereafter.
If Robert is healthy in 2027, he could have a huge year. Worth a one year gamble, perhaps. See at season’s end.
Émilien Pitre has flashed a maximum exit velocity of 111 mph, though tracking data like TJStats has also captured max readings around 108.1 mph in professional play.Though he has flashed a max exit velocity of 111 mph, the average and 90th percentile EV numbers are well below average.
Baseball America in their "best tools" article has Pitre listed as the " best Defensive- second baseman- double A".
To add insult to injury former Met Alex Ramirez as" best defensive outfielder- double A".
Rojas is noted for his skills at third base so the Mets have two players on their best of list.
Enough speed for line drive power. Sounds like an Arraez type who plays much better defense and with more speed.
i know that picture of Petri is frozen in time and not dynamic, but boy does he look balanced and prepared . If you look at how level his shoulders are you can see why he is not as advanced as others for getting the ball in the air. The only worry about people who hit the ball on the ground a lot is that a number of hits one year become ground outs the next. It's ok if you can match it with an ability to hit the ball to particular holes and run like the wind. The former is hard to do against major league pitching with is designed to put the hitter on the defensive.
Also did anyone else get a warning when trying to open up this story? Like a spam notification)
The first key to success is not swinging and missing. Jeff McNeil hit 5 HRs over his first 3 minors seasons spanning 1,100 at bats. He’s hit 86 homers in the big le
Yes. No idea why. Will keep an eye on it.
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