Tom Brennan - My Ten Most Exciting Mets Minor Leaguers of 2026

Mitch Voit. Photo courtesy of Manny Gomez, NJAM

TEN MOST EXCITING MINOR LEAGUERS OF 2026

Recently, I did a post on my most disappointing 10 minor leaguers of 2026, and today, the ten most exciting ones of 2026.

Let’s stick, first of all, with guys who haven’t graduated to the big leagues yet. So, Jefry Yan, who’s had a fine split season, Nate Lavender (an even finer year), the exciting AJ Ewing, the very competitive Zach Thornton, and Nick Morabito are not in this top 10….they've all graduated.

With them excluded, who are my ten most exciting?

AAA

Jefferson Rojas, Billy Amick, and Emilien Pitre - they only got to AAA relatively briefly post trade, but they did great.  

 - Rojas? 12 HRs and 36 RBIs in 35 post-trade games. What??

 - Amick? 15 HRs and 36 RBIs in 36 post-trade games. What??

 - Pitre?  34 hits and 10 walks in 30 games, with just 14 Ks. What??

AA

Mitch Voit - after escaping Brooklyn, he went .347/.430/.517 in AA. 45 SB.

Bryce Jenkins - 8-2, 1.66 ERA in 45 outings. BAA of just .147.

Marco Vargas - injured, slow first half. Second half?  35 G, .331/.399/.496.

HIGH A

Daviel Hurtado - 77 Brooklyn innings, 5-3, 2.69 ERA, 1.01 WHIP.

Elian Peña - 18 y/o lefty bat was great in St Lucie, but struggled (3 for 22 in a terrible Brooklyn park for lefty hitters, and only somewhat better on the road). Get him out of hell and over to Binghamton in 2027.

Aiden Smith - in 21 post-trade games, .321/.414/.524! 27 SB in 80 G, 15 HR!

FULL A

Zack Mack in relief went a clutch 10-2, 2.85 in 35 games. 

That’s my ten. 

Not necessarily my highest ceiling ten, but they sure did fine in 2026.

CASEY STENGEL HAD A GAME PLAN IN 1962.

COULDN’T WIN, SO HE WENT “LOVABLE LOSERS”.

MY GAME PLAN? I HAVE ONE OF MY OWN.

I’ll get right to it.  MY game plan?

I plan to devote less time to writing about the Micro-Mutts this off season.

Frequency of said articles? Probably once or more likely twice weekly.

If (Hi, I’m) Howie Rose can retire, I can slow down a bit here.  

Heck, I am 3 months his senior, tho’ I’m healthier than most Mets players.

Whatever I write about involving all things Mets seems to matter not a whit to decision makers…

They make their many mistakes anyway, so I won’t invest much time in Mets-related writing and will spend more time doing other things that are more important to me and that I have devoted insufficient time and effort to.

I will, fairly soon, do my Top 30, of course, because the Kids Are All Right, even if the Queens dudes are not, and I invite my fellow Mack’s Mets writers to share their thoughts on the kids.  

I will say what I like - and what I think the top 30 need to do better.  

I also will list out the next 20 (31-50). 

Some of those outside the Top 30 eventually will make it to the bigs.

I will summarize non-player-specific ideas to make the team better.

I will do a multi-post refresh on past years’ draft successes, and failures, and draft patterns to embrace and to avoid.

I will, of course, comment on my fellow writers’ posts, and encourage every reader to do the same and to run topics for discussion by Mack. 

It will be a long off-season, a long time until the next poorly or overly conditioned fool pulls an oblique muscle and misses half a season.

Lastly, I will encourage you elite readers to reach out to Mack if you have a passion for writing about the Mets.

I will not watch the playoffs (maybe a little of the World Series), so I will not spend my time on the playoffs if the Mets will not spend time playing playoff games.