Tom Brennan: Mets Minors Pitching Update; The A.J.’s; Scott Not (Yet)

 

REMEMBER JONAH TONG IN LAST SEPTEMBER’S GREAT METS START?

IT WON’T BE HIS LAST GREAT METS START

TOP 30 PROSPECT PITCHERS UPDATE

The Mets’ official Top 30 prospects list has 17 hitters and 13 pitchers. 

I addressed most of the hitters a few days ago.  

Today, it is the 13 prospect pitchers’ turn to go under the Brennan Scope:

(Based on stats through Friday):

AAA

Jonah Tong (Terrific)

One rough outing so far, and one rough 5th inning in another. But he has fanned 32 in 20.2 innings. 

Last 2 outings, 10 innings, 19 Ks. Beast. Terrific.

Jack Wenninger - Jack thought he was Christian Scott in his last outing: a short (2.1 IP), low hit (1), high walk (5) game, but Jack fanned 4, and so far has a 2.16 ERA. A good one.

Ryan Lambert - 1-0, 3.86 in 8 outings. Two were wild, the other 6 were great. 11 Ks in 7 IP.

Dylan Ross - 3 rehab innings so far in A ball. 0.00 ERA, 2 Ks. Good to see.

Jonathan Pintaro - 1-0, 2.51 in 7 relief outings with a 1.05 WHIP. And a 1.46 ERA after his first relief outing in sub-zero March conditions.

AA

Jon Santucci - Santucci started slowly in 2025 in High A. He has started a little unevenly this year

Will Watson - 0-3, 4.96 ERA and 1.53 WHIP in the early going.

Zach Thornton - 3 outings, 0-1, 2.76 ERA. His team is not hitting.

Brendan Girton - very wild in his first 3 starts. But threw a strong 5 innings of 1 run ball on Friday night.

R.J. Gordon - 11-3 last year, zero innings so far this year. (He actually had a short, rough rehab outing Saturday night for St Lucie.)

FULL A

Cam Tilly - 1-0, 5.85 in 15 innings, with 19 Ks, for the 21 year old 7th rounder, in his pro debut.  I think he will do well.

PETER KUSSOW & NATHAN HALL?

Their FCL season starts in early May. Their next pro inning will be their first. Both therefore have a 0.00 ERA.

One AA reliever off to a great start is 29(!) year old Brian Metoyer. 5 IP, 2 hits, 1 walk, 8 Ks, 0.00. An oldie but goodie. Maybe he ascends to Queens this year?

SUMMARY CONCLUSION: The system has been somewhat depleted from the depth of pitching it had a year ago, but is nonetheless still solid.

FRIDAY MINORS ACTION

Two rainouts and 2 losses. Syracuse got smoked 9-2, with bad bullpen work. St Lucie lost 8-7, with bad bullpen work. Jose Chirinos pitched well, again, for St Lucie (2,45 ERA). Lavender pitched well for Lucie in his ongoing rehab.

Elian Peña (.338) had 2 hits and a walk, and feels more and more like a RISING STAR!

WHAT WOULD BE COOL…

It won’t happen, but it would be cool (at least to me) if the Mets called up both A.J. Minter and A.J. Ewing on the same day.  

Minter should be called up within the next several days. 

Ewing IMO deserves the same timeframe, but it will be longer for the AA hitting star to arrive. Hitters are simply less fungible than pitchers.

CHRISTIAN SCOTT

After his most recent no-decision, he has been in 10 career major league games spanning 49 innings.  Considering all the chatter, and all the “top prospect coverage” he has gotten on the Macks Mets website, he has exactly 0 major league wins. Zero.  No place to go but up.

Of course, pointing that “zero” out is not to denigrate him. 

If he was pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers, he’d probably have five career wins already. 

Just ask Jake D how difficult it is to win games as a Mets starter. 

Or ask Freddy P. Or Matt Harvey. Or Anthony Young.

Anthony Y. was 3-30 over a 2 year period. In true Mets fashion, he had an ERA below 4.00 spanning those 2 years. But heck, at least he won some games. Young was 10-13 with his 2 other clubs. 

Paul Sewald? 1-14 with the Mets. His next team, Seattle? 18-8.

So, Christian, take it all with a grain of salt.