Tom Brennan - So, I Looked at the Mets’ Top 30 Prospect List Last Friday an Had These Thoughts

The Amazins’ Must Love The Truly Amazing Mitch Voit 

METS BEAT CLEVELAND, 6-2. 3 homers, Manaea throwing 95.

Nate Lavender had a great debut.  Torrens crushed it!

Break them up!

The Mets’ top 30 list (linked below) had changed dramatically since pre-season, as I write this on Friday AM of the last day in July.

But since then,  it is already greatly updated again for new acquisitions.

METS WEBSITE TOP 30 LIST

With recent draft picks, and the many prospects currently coming in trades, like the trade for Benny Agbayani’s son, huge shifts to this TOP 30 have come. Jefferson Rojas is deservedly the new # 1, and Sammy Stafura of the booming power bat is # 11.

Roughly 10 or more new guys in, and 10 or more others removed, from the Top 30. You don’t see THAT every day.

Back to what was the pre-trades existing list: 

One prospect’s ranking, and one’s non-ranking, I just cannot understand - maybe you the reader can help me:

Player # 1 in the last two months in High A/AA was .305/.430/.485 with 0.95 Ks per game. Killing it.

Player # 2 in the last two months in AAA was .130/.250/.220, with 1.65 Ks per game. Gosh-awful.

Player #1, Corey Collins, is not even in the top 30. 

Player # 2, Ryan Clifford, is grossly overrated at 7th (now 8th, post-trades). (He was 3rd pre-season).

My advice?  

Have them switch places. 

Is Ryan Clifford really a top 30 prospect? 

Come on, be honest. This is a time for objective honesty.

The answer is No. Not really. 

He cannot even shine super dud Jarred Kelenic’s shoes.

He had 16 HRs in 406 plate appearances, this season. The other 390 PAs (96%) have collectively been dismal. 

A complete change in approach seems to be a strategy to consider.

Jake deGrom frankly was a better hitter. 

And had McLean just hit, and not pitched so well, Nolan McLean would be a better hitter by now, too. 

McLean hit .185/.281/.432 in 2025, despite facing much better pitchers than he was ready for at the time, because his superior pitching shot him up the chain. 

McLean was hitting against HIGH A and AA pitching in his first real pro season, which no prospect hitter does besides Benge and Voit.

If McLean had started out hitting in St Lucie in that first year, with a late season bump to High A, instead, his slash line would probably have been 50 points higher, at .235/.331/.482. 

And he’d have been ranked in the Mets’ top 20. As a hitter.

I’ll remind people that in college, he hit a 472 ft. HR. To the opposite field.

Or 1B/3B Nick Lorusso could switch places with Clifford. Lorusso, despite a slow April and May, has been hot the last 10 weeks, and now has 20 HRs and 57 RBIs in 317 at bats, and just got bumped to AAA, where he homered.

Moving on:

Zac Thornton, who everyone now 💕LOVES💕, was still ranked 6th. 

Two less-loved hurlers, Jonah Tong Terrific and Jonathan Superb Santucci, however, were ranked higher, # 1 and # 2. 

Love Zac all you want, but love those guys, too. I still think both are great.

Maybe, just maybe, they will be better than Zac in the long run.

Eli Serrano was still ranked 13th, now down to 15th, despite hitting .193 in 54 Binghamton games when he was not injured. And a career .214 hitter in the minors.  Joe Biden saw that and said COME ON, MAN.

Why is he even in the top 30? 

Jack Reimer shouldn’t be 4th (now 5th after deadline deals), either. 

His 2025 season was strong, but his 2024 and 2026 seasons are both poor and injury-filled. The ability to stay healthy is not sufficiently considered, I imagine that Jorge Polanco might be thinking.

Honestly, how they have him ahead of Mitch Voit, I do not know. But, more on Voit later.

Two guys who have slipped badly since the pre-season top 30 are walk-one-per-inning Dylan Ross and Ryan Lambert, to # 29 and # 30. 

After new prospects acquired in trades are factored in, both dropped entirely out of the top 30. How disappointing. 

“They’d both be great if the strike zone was 50% larger, since that really helped me”, HOF Tom Glavine must be thinking.

Guys in the top 30 in late July I expected to drop out of it besides Ross and Lambert are Nathan Hall (24th), Antonio Jimenez (25th), Marco Vargas (29th), RJ Gordon (30th). And yes, all are OUT.

I thought Trey Snyder would push his way in. But he didn’t, at least yet, what with all of the newly acquired prospects. Trey is hitting .302, and .358 with RISP in 189 at bats after returning from injury.

Serrano IMHO should still be in the top 30, but as close to # 30 as humanly possible. OK, I’ll concede, top 35.

Thornton is about to graduate out for good, freeing up one slot.

I know I am a broken record here when I wish Clifford would join his buddy in KRIME, Colin Houck, outside the top 30. Both belong between # 40 and # 50 IMO due to prodigious levels of Ks. Before his fine last 3 games of July (6 for 12, with one K), Houck in July had gone 6 for 51 with 28 Ks. Amazing. But he was just put on the Development List after the trade deadline explosion. 

I’d immediately demote Houck to I Love Lucy Land, even though he’s been in Brooklyn for 137 games in 2025-26 (.203, 213 Ks) and tell him to cut his Ks in half, by any means possible. Or just cut him. 

He is now WAY DOWN on the team’s position player prospects listing. 

He’ll never make it. Sorry, but I am not the one fanning 40% of the time.

My last thoughts? 

Elian Peña is ranked 3rd, Mitch Voit 5th.  (Now 4th and 6th, post-trades).

Now THAT positioning should make for an interesting debate. 

Me? 

I think next February, they will both be ranked in the top 3. 

It is probable that Tong graduates out of the Top 30 due to innings before the end of 2025, as Will Thornton and perhaps Wenninger. Santucci possibly. Pintaro possibly. It will be a Top 30 Hitters’ Haven next spring, unless a bunch are traded away.

The new slugger Jefferson Rojas may prove to be better and stay at # 1.

You rank them. 

Which of these 3 prospects do you like better in the long run?

I do know that thru Sunday, Voit had gotten on base a million times in AA in his first 6 AA games, going .500/.593/.909. Then, in game 7, a single, 2 doubles, and a line out!

Strikeout rate excellent. Good power. Fast as the wind. Great fielder.

He is my NUMBER ONE. Right now. 

Keep THAT in mind when choosing between Rojas and the excellent Pena and Voit.

I will leave you with this:

For the first time, I am thinking that Mitch Voit could be on the Mets opening day roster in 2027. I think he is that good. His career has rocket thrusters.

And these Top 30 prospects are the deepest for the Mets in hitting that I have ever seen. 20 of the 30 are hitters.

Total team salary dropped…but I think is still the highest…

….and here is an angle you may not have considered:

If there is an extended MLB strike in 2027, non-40 man roster players CAN PLAY in the minors in 2027, closing the gap talent-wise between them and their Mets counterparts. If the strike lasts two months, those prospects are all two months closer to replacing high-cost veterans.

Reese Kaplan -- David Stearns Breaks Out the Broom to Clean House

With bated breath Mets fans, media types and baseball aficionados in general were awaiting what exactly would be the result of the great 2026 summer sell off which finally took place long after the club slipped into irrelevancy.

• The first move was one of those addition-by-subtraction transactions where the Mets sent David Peterson packing to the Chicago Cubs who apparently were desperately in need of a healthy if not particularly effective starting pitcher and the Mets received an injured power hitting prospect named Cole Mathis.  What is interesting in this deal is that he was the 13th ranked prospect for the Cubs and now the 14th ranked prospect for the Mets.  It suggests that the Mets farm system is not nearly as bad as feared.
• Then came the A.J. Minter to the Twins salary dump.  In return for the highly effective southpaw heading to Minneapolis, the Mets made a deal that gave the Mets some good fan-centric PR by bringing home Benny Agbayani’s son, Bruin, as part of a two prospect pricetag for the reliever.  The younger Agbayani is also injured and in his brief pro career is showing a .228 bat with no power.  Given that he’s 19 years old it’s kind of like throwing a dart to project where he’ll end up in terms of baseball skill.  The other guy coming back from the Twins is another uneven power hitter named Billy Amick.  Over 600 minor league ABs he’s clubbed 31 HRs and driven in 114 but while hitting just .253 and striking out 195 times.  It seems like another Ryan Clifford. If so, that’s not good.
• Late night this weekend the Mets finally dealt Freddy Peralta away.  The takers were the Tampa Bay Rays who have one of the better farm systems in baseball.  Three players came back, all of whom were in their top 100 but evaluators rank higher in the Mets’ less than stellar farm system.  Two of the three have some potential and ranking at better numbers underscores the paucity of talent in the Mets minors.  Number one is second baseman Emelien Pitre who hits well over .300 with excellent base running speed.  He’s 23 and at AA.  21 year old pitcher Gary Gill Hill has a career minor league ERA of 3.99 with 338 Ks in 394 IP.  His walk to strikeout ratio is not bad but a below .500 records suggests his ceiling could be just a back end starter.  The third domino was outfielder Aidan Smith is a career .246 hitting minor leaguer with excellent speed who hasn’t advanced above A ball.  He’s a wildcard at best.
• Another head scratcher comes from the dealing of solid reliever Huascar Brazoban to the Chicago White Sox for two very suspect prospect pitchers.  Brazoban hold a very impressive 2.56 ERA and makes almost no money, though his age of 36 somewhat counts against his long term future.  In return the Mets obtain AA right handed pitcher Gabe Davis who owns an 8.31 ERA (yikes!) as well as AAA pitcher Zach Franklin who is markedly better at 4.37 with 5 saves.  The 6’9” Davis does strike out better than one per inning pitched but the other numbers in college and during the minors are pretty ugly.  Franklin is already 27 years old but his underlying numbers show good WHIP and strikeout metrics with a career ERA of just 3.46.  Still, the return for Brazoban seems questionable at best.
• The second trade with the Cubs happened Monday when recovering starting pitcher Clay Holmes and reserve outfielder Tyrone Taylor were sent to Wrigley Field in exchange for the team’s number two prospect, infielder Jefferson Rojas.  Currently Rojas is working at the AA level where he’s hitting .270 with 15 HRs, 57 RBIs and 17 SBs.  This level of productivity suggests he could be a replacement at second base, shortstop or third base if more changes happen in the offseason. 
• In a somewhat surprising move, the Mets traded reliever Brooks Raley to the Phillies for a rather weak return of two non-prime prospects.  The first is very speedy outfielder John Spikerman whose minor league career average is just .232 with no power but is accompanied by a stunning 55 SBs in just 375 ABs. Apparently he could be the next Tyrone Taylor 4th outfielder.  Accompanying him is pitcher Luke Gabrysh who at age 23 is still toiling in A ball.  He’s a career 4.56 ERA hurler with mediocre WHIP numbers to accompany his lackluster ERA.  
• Another shocker was the Pittsburgh Pirates obtaining somewhat expensive setup reliever Luke Weaver from the Mets.  He’s having a terrific year and you’d expect the return to be high.  Well, in this case it seems to have happened just that way.  Infielder Sammy Stafura in A+ is having a wonderful year, hitting .301 with 19 HRs, 51 RBIs and 16 SBs over the course of just 47 games. 
• Finally there was a reserve catcher move returning Ben Rortvedt to the Dodgers for 27 year old relief pitcher Chayce McDermott who owns a career minor league ERA of 4.36.  The players involved are not expected to be impact players for either team. 

Still on the Mets after this housecleaning are center fielder Luis Robert, second baseman Marcus Semien, shortstop Francisco Lindor, third baseman Bo Bichette, utility man Brett Baty, catchers Francisco Alvarez and Luis Torrens as well as pitchers Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga.

That Adam Smith - Weaver for Stafura: Did David Stearns Get His Man?

Stearns gets his guy: Mets trade Luke Weaver + Cash for Sammy Stafura

Amidst the train wreck that is the 2026 Mets season, the bullpen has been by far their greatest strength. And in that bullpen, no one had been better than Luke Weaver.

In 44 innings this season, which included a 28.1 inning scoreless streak Weaver gave up just 25 hits, 11 walks, and 9 earned runs for a 1.84 ERA.

Despite not being a closer, Weaver was not only the Mets’ best reliever, but one of the best relievers in the game all season.  And while much of the rest of the ‘pen was being sold off for parts, Weaver was under control for 2027.

And yet, the Mets traded Weaver as part of their 2026 teardown - while paying down a significant portion of his contract for both this year and next - to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for 21 year-old shortstop and self-proclaimed “one of the biggest Mets fans ever” Sammy Stufara.

It’s a lot to give up. This was more than just the best guy available. The Mets had been rumored all week to be interested in Stafura, but to give up Weaver while covering most of his salary going forward, Stafura was clearly a player that Stearns had identified and targeted.

Stafura is considered a plus-plus defender at shortstop with a 60-grade arm and elite or near-elite speed, giving him a very high floor.  If there were questions about Stafuro’s ceiling, it was whether he would get to the power that his tools hinted at, and whether his game might be hampered by a bit too much swing and miss.

This season - or, more specifically, the past six weeks - seems to have answered the power question in a big way, and while he’s not a sure thing yet, if Stafura can cut down a little bit on the whiff, his ceiling is very high indeed. 

Sammy Stafura grew up a huge Mets fan in Cortland Manor NY and was drafted in the second round of the 2023 draft by the Cincinnati Reds out of Panas HS. Keith Law went out of his way to laud the Reds for the pick at the time, calling Stafuro “a first round talent.”

He got a cup of coffee in Rookie Ball at  the end of the 2023 season, and returned there to start 2024 at 19 years old. Over his first 69 AB’s in Rookie ball, he hit .346/.449/.582/1.031 with 7 XBH and 4SB. He was immediately promoted to Daytona (A) in the Florida State League.

In 290 AB’s at Daytona, where he was 2 years younger than league average, Stafuro hit .255/.374/.379 for a .754 OPS and stole 27 of 32 bases.

Stafura opened 2025 as a 20 year-old - still young for the league - back in Daytona, where he hit .261/.392/.410 in 402 AB’s for an .801 OPS, with 18 2B, 9 3B, and just 5 HR, with 63 BB and 97 K.

Then, at the 2025 trade deadline, the Reds traded Stafura to the Pirates who assigned him to their A-ball affiliate at Bradenton, an assignment that lasted just four games before a promotion to A+ Greensboro of the South Atlantic League.

At Greensboro, he struggled over the season's last 26 games to the tune of a .512 OPS in 110 AB’s. 

In January of 2026, Stafura partially tore the UCL in his throwing arm, delaying his spring training.  His season got off to a rough start at the plate in Greensboro, and then in May, he strained a hamstring, missing 3 weeks. He came back for 8 games of rehab in A-ball and returned to Greensboro on June 9th.  

From the start of this season until June 13th, over 30 games, Stafura was hitting .192/.319/.303 for a .522 OPS.  But then something clicked.

Starting on June 14th, Sammy Stafura went on a tear, going 13 for 38 for a .342 BA for the rest of the month. And then July happened.

In July of this season, Sammy Stafura went 29 for 81 (.358) with 14 HR in 18 games, bringing his season A+ stat line to .301/.365/.656/1.021, with 19 HR, 7 2B, 1 3B over 211 AB’s, successful on 16 of 17 stolen base attempts. 

Now, it must be said that Greensboro is a launching pad, and 13 of his 19 A+ HR’s this year have come at home. But he’s also OPS’d .899 on the road.  

On the July 25th episode of the Bucs On Deck podcast,  Anthony Murphy who closely follows the Pirates system said, “It’s been ridiculous. I’ve seen some hot streaks of guys who’ve come through Greensboro, but this is by far one of the most insane runs I’ve seen for a minor league player." 

 

A once in a lifetime hot streak?  Maybe. But Stafuro doesn’t think so.

“Mentally, I’m believing that I’m the best player on the field and acting like that every single day,” Stafura told MLB News. “I think that’s been one of the biggest parts of this year is just believing that I am the person I am, and I’ve started acting like it the past month, and it’s been showing pretty well.”

 

Stafura’s not a finished product.  He’s struck out around 30% of his AB’s in A+ this year, and his whiff rate is over 30% as well.  But while he needs to cut back on his swing and miss, he’s hitting the ball often and hard.  And he’s still only 21.

Stafura was listed as the Mets’ #11 prospect by MLB post-deadline, but others, including Joe Demayo, teased on his deadline edition Mets’d Up podcast that he’d have him significantly higher than that in his updated rankings later this week.

Sammy Stafura is already seen by most evaluators as a future top defensive SS in baseball with elite speed and base stealing ability.  His background had hinted at power, and now that’s showing as well.  

Based on those attributes alone, even if he doesn't cut down on the swing and miss, Stafura is almost certainly a major league player. But if he can reign that in - even if it means dialing back a bit on the absurd HR power that has showed itself over the past 6 weeks - David Stearns may have just traded a year of Luke Weaver (along with a reported $8 million in cash) for Francisco Lindor’s heir apparent at shortstop, and added another cornerstone piece to to the Mets’ exciting young core.

One of the biggest Mets fans ever. How cool is that.

MACK - Let’s Get To Know – Jefferson Rojas

 

Jefferson Rojas is a 21-year-old Dominican professional baseball infielder (primarily shortstop and second baseman; also plays third) who was a top prospect in the Chicago Cubs organization until a trade to the Mets on August 3, 2026.

Born April 25, 2005, in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

Bats and throws right-handed; listed at about 5'11", 150 lbs.

Signed with the Cubs on January 15, 2022, as a 16-year-old international free agent (36th-ranked that year) for a reported $1 million bonus.

His father, Ricardo Rojas (a former minor leaguer in the Cleveland organization), left a conventional job to focus on developing Jefferson’s talent after noticing his ability as a preteen.

Rojas has been aggressively promoted and often among the youngest players at each level:

2022 (DSL Cubs): .303/.391/.407 with 1 HR and 15 SB in 45 games.

2023 (primarily Single-A Myrtle Beach): Solid production with 7 HR and 13 SB.

2024 (High-A South Bend): Adjusted with more modest numbers.

2025: Strong at High-A (.278/.379/.492 with 11 HR and solid steals in part of the year), then struggled after a midseason promotion to Double-A Knoxville (.164/.279/.205 in 39 games as one of the youngest players there).

2026 (Double-A Knoxville Smokies): Career-best power year. Through roughly 91 games: .270/.339/.461 (about .800 OPS) with 15 HR, 57 RBI, and 17 SB. He became the first Cubs minor leaguer that season to reach 15 homers and 15 steals, including a game-winning extra-innings homer in late July. He ranked as the Cubs’ No. 1 or No. 2 prospect and around No. 63–80 overall on MLB Pipeline lists at points during the year.

He has shown a developing hit tool, growing power (especially in 2026), speed, and defensive versatility across the infield.

Scouts note maturity beyond his age, though questions remain about whether he sticks long-term at shortstop (potentially shifting toward second or third) and consistency against higher-level pitching.

 Rojas ranked as the Cubs’ No. 2 prospect and a Top 100 overall prospect at the time of the reports.

Steve Sica - Evaluating the Mets Trade Deadline

The trade deadline is officially behind us, and the Mets were one of the busiest teams during these last few days.

Plenty of new prospects are joining the MiLB ranks from St. Lucie to Syracuse, and now former Mets are on their way to contenders to try to help them go deep into October. Let's take a look at how the Mets did with their haul of prospects.

1. 

Mets get: INF Billy Amick and Bruin Agbayani 

Twins get: A.J. Minter

Late on Thursday night, the Mets started the deadline strong when they parted with veteran reliever A.J. Minter and brought in Billy Amick and Bruin Agbayani.

This was a solid haul for Minter and had a bit of Mets lore attached to it, with Bruin being the son of 2000 NL Champion and fan favorite Benny Agbayani. He was also the better half of the pair of prospects that came over. Now ranked as the 29th best prospect in the Met system per Pipeline, Agbayani had a small sample size in Low-A before injuries kept him out most of the season. 

In ten games with Fort Myers, he went 11-for-41 with three doubles, six RBIs, nine walks, and just three strikeouts. He's only 19 years old, so there's plenty of time to develop him.

While not ranked in the top-30, Amick is a great get. He slugged 23 home runs with Double-A Wichita and already cranked out his first home run with Binghamton over the weekend. He has high power but high strikeout numbers, very Ryan Clifford-like. Still, his raw power is intriguing, and it'll be entertaining watching him progress through the system.

Trade grade: B-

2. 

Mets get: OF Aidan Smith, 2B Emilien Pitre and RHP Gary Gill Hill

Rays get: Freddy Peralta

You were never going to get back the same return as the Mets gave up for Peralta over the winter, and unfortunately, Peralta did himself and the Mets no favors by having the worst year of his career to this point. 

Still, the Mets came away from this trade with a decent haul. Outfielder Aiden Smith is the headline prospect in this deal, ranking as he sits as the Mets' 14th-best prospect. He's had a bit of a rough season in High-A, batting just .215, with a .693 OPS. There's some potential here, though. He was drafted in the 4th round back in 2023 and, in 2024, batted .288 with an OPS of .874 in Low-A.

The prospect I'm most excited about in this deal is Emilien Pitre, currently ranked as the 17th-best Met prospect. He has fantastic contact numbers and plate discipline, batting .323 with 30 walks to 17 strikeouts and an OPS of .943. He's very much like the type of hitters the Mets are developing in Carson Benge and A.J Ewing. Get on base, minimize strikeouts, a little speed, and work up counts. 

Gary Gill Hill comes in at the 19th-ranked prospect in the Mets system, and while his 4.43 ERA in Double-A isn't anything to brag about, his K/BB ratio is. In 81 innings, he's struck out 61 batters while walking just 14.

Trade grade: B

3. 

Mets get: RHP Gabe Davis and RHP Zach Franklin 

White Sox get: Huascar Brazoban

A fairly uneventful trade. Brazoban is 37, and while he's been having a great season this year, he was a disaster in 2024 and streaky in 2025. I think some fans overvalued him, and this return was met with a lot of disappointment. For what it is, it's a fair trade on both sides.

Zach Franklin will likely find himself in Queens before the end of summer, and Gabe Davis, standing at 6'9 is an imposing presence on the mound that reminds me of fellow tall reliever, 6'5 Dylan Ross. While his 8.31 ERA in Double-A is alarming, he did have a 2.63 ERA in High-A across 27 innings of work. The adjustment between those two levels is the hardest, so patience might be key in his development.

Trade grade: C

4.

Mets get: RHP Luke Gabrysh and OF John Spikerman

Phillies get: Brooks Raley

This trade was a bit of a surprise considering it's within their division, and also disappointing. 

When you trade a key player to a hated division rival that'll help them potentially win a World Series, you better be getting a decent return of prospects. The Mets failed to do that in this case. I get that 38-year-old Brooks Raley doesn't come with a lot of leverage, but in a market that always values relievers, I feel like the Mets could've gotten more.

Luke Gabrysh isn't ranked and has a 5+ ERA in High-A. Meanwhile, John Spikerman comes in as the Mets 28th ranked prospect. He is a decent hitter with a .260 average and 18 stolen bases. He walked 26 times to 30 strikeouts, so he's another guy who fits into the Mets system.

However, Raley had a sub-two ERA and was easily one of the best relievers on the market. If the Mets couldn't squeeze more out of the Phillies for him, they were better off trading him elsewhere. The market was certainly active for him. Even if the return was similar to what you got from the Phillies, at least you're not giving him up for cheap to your arch-rival.

Trade grade: D

5.

Mets get: SS Sammy Stafura

Pirates get: Luke Weaver

Initially, this trade seemed pretty light considering Luke Weaver isn't just a top reliever but also has another year of control in 2027. 

Nothing against Sammy Stafura as he slots in as the 11th-ranked prospect in the Mets system. A local product out of Cortlandt, NY, he put up excellent numbers with High-A Greensboro. In 47 games, he batted .301 with an OPS of 1.021, slugged 19 home runs, 51 RBIs, and stole 16 bases. He's still only 21-years-old and was a second-round draft pick in 2023. Truly, a great addition to the Met farm system.

Despite all that, when the news broke, you couldn't help but look for his name and another prospect coming back in return; even if it was an unranked guy, Weaver was seen as the best available bullpen arm here, and to sell him off without a top-100 prospect or multiple prospects seemed like a steal for Pittsburgh.

When it came out that the Mets were on the hook for over half of Weaver's contract next year too, this trade went from being alright to just plain dumb. If you're going to be paying $7.5 million to a guy who isn't even on your roster next year, you should be getting a little more than one High-A prospect in return. On the field and off the field, this was a disappointing trade for the Mets as the Pirates lived up to their name and robbed Stearns and the Mets' ship.

Trade grade: D-

6. 

Mets get: 3B Jefferson Rojas

Cubs get: Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor

The Mets ended the deadline on a high note, getting back a top-100 prospect in Jefferson Rojas. He becomes the Mets' best prospect and has a great set of tools in power, speed, and contact. 

At just 21 years old, he's in his first full season of Double-A ball, putting up an OPS of .800 with 15 home runs, 57 RBIs, 19 doubles, and 17 steals. He brings a jolt of excitement into a system that fell off hard this summer when they graduated Carson Benge, A.J Ewing, and Nolan McLean. He also fills a need at third base, a position the Mets have lacked depth in for years at the Major League and MiLB level.

To get this type of return for Clay Holmes, who hasn't started an MLB game since mid-May, and Tyrone Taylor, a serviceable outfield bat, I have to hand it to Stearns here. He might've bombed on the Weaver deal, but ultimately brings back a marquee prospect out of the 2026 fire sale.

Trade grade: A

MACK - OPEN THREAD - CLAY HOLMES/TYRONE TAYLOR TRADE

 

The New York Mets traded OF Tyrone Taylor and SP Clay Holmes, to the Chicago Cubs, for their #2 prospect, 3B/SS/2B Jefferson Rojas.

Rojas is only 21/years old and is already excelling at the AA level.

2026 - AA - 345-AB, 64-K, 35-BB, 15-HR, 57-RBI

.270/.339/.461/.799

Cautious Optimist -- A New Day Dawning

 

You may not believe it, but I did not have white hair before the current baseball season began.  Golf is all I have left to carry me through the summer and into the Fall, when I can be entertained/depressed by the Jets. 

If I had only grown up privileged or at least with different sports alliances.  I sometimes wonder whether it would have made a difference, and if so, in which direction.

After all, there is something noble, if not rewarding, about supporting the misfortunate and misunderstood.

Alas, the Jets and Mets are both owned by billionaires so they are hardly among the downtrodden and misfortunate.  Misunderstood?  I don't think so.  We know all too well what both teams are, or at least have been, and, for all I know, may well continue to be.

But for some reason that I am not sure that I can explain,  I truly believe that today (or yesterday) marked the first day in the rest of my life aa a Mets fan.

As of right now, It's a New Day Dawning in Metsland, and I feel fine

Of course I know that statement is both obvious and banal, but as a philosopher by trade I have nothing against either.

But I mean for it to convey not merely a note of genuine optimism, but a sea change.  For as I see it, while not everything about the Mets has changed as of today, and while the immediate future remains murky at best, the Mets have not just changed course, they have taken the first serious steps along the pathway to sustained success that both RVH and I, each in our own way, mistakenly attributed to them during last offseason.

I don't want to speak for him, even if I could, so I will confine my reflections to my own premature assessment of the wisdom of the path they had chosen.

Roughly I understood the Mets to have broken with the past last offseason while setting up an execuable plan to experience success both in the mid term and for years thereafer.

As I saw it 

I understood the Mets to have adopted a several stage approach to ensuring long term success.  The first step was to break cleanly with the past, which they accomplished by jettisoning by trade or free agency, three of the core players that had taken the team deep into the 2024 post season.  The FO determined that the core had gone as far as it could and maintaining it would only prove to be a hurdle to getting on a more promising pathway to success.

I agreed with the overall assessment of the team and both the ceiling of a team constructed around the existing core, and more importantly, the roadblock to getting on a more promising path any further reliance or investment in the core would likely become.

We can disagree about the specific decisions they made in saying goodbye to Alonso, McNeil and Nimmo, but I am hard pressed to believe that many among us thought staying the path with minor adjustments here and there would have been a better overall strategy for success.

Second, the FO also recognized that, no matter what the baseball publications thought of their farm system,  no matter the quantity or quality of prospects within it, the total number of high end talent and its distribution both in position and in readiness to contribute to the majors was nowhere near where it needed to be.  I fully agreed with this assessment.

The approach the FO took to remedy the situation was, in effect to buy time while staying highly competitive.  Buying time would allow the team to draft or trade for additional prospects and to develop those already in the pipeline.  Staying competitive while doing so is all a fan base could reasonably ask for.    And the FO believed, given the talent still on the roster, competitiveness could be assured by filling the gaps of the departed with highly competent replacements on short term contracts, thereby blocking no one among the prospects and minimizing overall investments in FA.

We can agree that the strategy failed miserably, but not completely.  The FO managed to put together one of the best bullpens in the majors at relatively low cost, but was unable to duplicate that performance anywhere else on the field.  

That is an understatement.  In all honesty, most of the trades and signings of position players has been a flat out disaster.  The team has been anything but competitive.  Worse, it was unwatchable and expensive.  It really simply stunk -- in ways few of us thought possible.

But it's worked out for the better -- and here's why

The original plan was never going to work. Two years of a competitive team would not have provided enough time or opportunity to collect talent across the diamond and to find enough of it at different levels to create the necessary time alignment that sustained results require.

Worse, had the team been successful enough this year to compete for a wild card or for a division title, we likely would have been buyers at the deadline forced to trade at least some of our valued prospects for immediate help.  We would have traded the future to some extent for the possibility of immediate success, which can never be the right approach when an organization already has too few genuine prospects unevenly distributed by position and readiness.

The best thing that could have happened did.  We weren't just bad, we were horrendous and loaded with high performing relievers and back-ups on expiring contracts.  We had lots of players we would not have had on the roster had we not adopted the wrong strategy in the first place.  And we had these players at virtually every position teams in competition for the playoffs are looking for!!

What good fortune.  No pretense here of good planning.  Just pure luck.

I don't know how many times during the season I wrote lamenting the absence of quality infielders throughout the upper regions of the farm, or how bereft of talent in the outfield beyond Morabito those same affiliated teams were.  Not to mention, no one within a metaphorical mile of the majors ready to play either 1B or 3B.  And if that weren't enough, I noted that beyond Santucci and Tong, no pitcher in AA or AAA gave any indication that they were ready to compete for a spot in the major league rotation.

I was wrong about that, as Zac Thornton has made clear.  But I was not wrong about anything else I claimed about the state of our farm affiliates.  I was not some sort of savant.  It was obvious to anyone willing to look carefully.  We were counting on the likes of Baty, Vientos and Mauricio to carry us to the wave of infielders three or more years away from competing for a major league roster spot.  That was never a plausible expectation.  Never.

So let's look at what's happened over the past week or so

We don't need much in the outfield and won't for a few years, but through the draft and deadline trades, we have added more potential promising prospects than we would have otherwise -- had the original ill-conceived strategy actually worked out.

But that's nothing compared to what we have accomplished on the infield.  Before the trade deadline period, we had only Voit and Snyder as possibilities before the likes of Pena and Asigen made their way to Queens.  And you know I'm right, because one of the few interesting discussions we all had with one another was whether Ewing should be shifted to 2B.  And those like me who were opposed to this idea were mostly worried about how few outfielders we had on the farm who could conceivably replace Ewing.

Now, we not only don't have to think about moving Ewing to 2B, we think only about how quickly we can move Semien out of 2nd and who among the handful of potential replacement for him will emerge as his replacement and how soon they will do so.

And there's more.  We may be just a year away from having the fastest and among the finest fielding infields and outfields in the majors.

Sure we are still a bit short of power, but if only two or three of the individuals we have drafted or picked up during the deadline make the roster, we will be one of the few speed burning teams with capable power.

As to pitching, we have a ways to go, but we have more arms who have established some area of excellence who will be vying for a spot on the roster in a year or two.  We are exactly where we never could have been had the original plan worked out -- this season.  And we are here only because we put that plan in place and other than succeeding in the bullpen failed everywhere else.  We traded away that bullpen, and changed the dynamics of our farm system entirely.

Truly sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

I'm not an idiot or a Polyanna.  There's more to be done and it's possible that it will all blow up.

I recognize that.  We have three major offseason moves to make.  Two of these involve the pitching staff. We need two veteran top flight starting pitchers.  Maybe only one until the trading deadline next year, but two by the playoffs.  I think there is no choice but to go all in on Skubal.  Bichette's money will come off the books the first year of Skubal's contract.  If Bichette wants a long term contract, he has to do well next year and opt out while he is still young enough to command a 5 year contract.

I am not ready to trade Lindor.  Of course I wish he and Soto had a better relationship, but I view their forms of leadership as complementary, not conflictive. 

We need to put together a new bullpen.  

People who read my posts know that in my book the two most important parts of the team are starting rotation and back of the bullpen.  There is no point in trying to cut corners on either.  The one thing Stearns did very well in Milwaukee and pretty well here, so far, is to put together a bullpen. We have a few potential pieces in the minors, but most of the reliever corps will come from trades and FA.

Skubal will be expensive in both money and years, but you need an ACE if you can find one.  An ACE makes everyone else better.  He reduces costs elsewhere as a result.  

The hardest job of the offseason will be finding creative ways of unloading the disastrous Semien contract, as much of the Senga contract as possible, and if he fails to perform, the remainder of Polanco's.

I know it's crazy to say, but it is only money.  It's much better to be in a position of having money rather than poor performance holding you back.  I'm sure Steve Cohen knows that as well.

Ever the optimist,  I am happy to end on this note.

Onward and Upward

We're on our way HOME.

MACK - GET TO KNOW - P CHAYCE McDERMOTT

 

Chayce McDermott (born August 22, 1998) is a 6'3", 190 lb right-handed pitcher.

He was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 4th round (132nd overall) out of Ball State University in 2021, traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 2022, and then dealt to the Dodgers in April 2026.

McDermott has a strong minor-league strikeout track record (over 12 K/9 in many seasons, with 611 career MiLB strikeouts in 435+ IP) but has struggled with command, consistency, and results in limited MLB action. He has a career MLB line of 0-1, 12.00 ERA in 7 appearances (2 starts, 15 IP), with 13 K, 14 BB, and a 2.27 WHIP.

• 2024 (BAL): MLB debut on July 24 vs. MIA (4 IP, 3 ER). One start: 6.75 ERA in 4 IP.
• 2025 (BAL): Mostly relief/spot starts; struggled badly with a 15.58 ERA in 8.2 IP (high walks and homers allowed).
• 2026: Converted to full-time relief. Started the year with BAL (DFA'd after poor Triple-A results), traded to LAD in mid-April. Limited MLB time with LAD (2.1 IP, 7.71 ERA, 1 K in 2 relief appearances as of late June). Optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City; designated for assignment on July 31. In Triple-A (across teams), he posted a 4.55 ERA with strong strikeouts (52 in 31.2 IP) but a 1.55 WHIP.
• 
  

Key traits and development notes: He had Tommy John surgery in college. He worked on mechanics in the 2025-26 offseason (better posture, alignment, energy transfer), which boosted fastball velocity (from ~93 mph to ~96 mph) and improved command somewhat, though control remains an issue (high walk rates historically). He has shown swing-and-miss potential but has been flyball-prone and homer-vulnerable in MLB. 

MACK - OPEN THREAD - LUKE WEAVER TRADE

 

The New York Mets have traded RP Luke Weaver to the Pittsburgh Pirates for SS Sammy Stafura.

Stafura was the Pirates #32 prospect.

SS/2B    6-0    190    RHH    21/years old

2026 - A -  35-AB  16-K 10-BB  1-HR  3-RBI  .143/.375/.257/.632 

          A+ - 186-AB  62-K  20-BB  19-HR  51-RBI  .301/.365/.656/1.021