FINALLY…I GET DOWN TO THE VENERABLE 11 THRU 15 DUDES!
11) Jacob Reimer
I wonder - what would this achy guy do if he wasn’t always injured? I have healthy skepticism at this point as to whether he can stay healthy for a full season. Just .242/.351/.410 in 88 games, mostly at AA.
Jefferson, Amick, and Pitre, all of whom can play 3rd base, got late promotions to AAA, while Reimer did not.
He still only turns just 23 at the start of next year’s spring training.
Might he not even make the 40 man roster?
Trade candidate? We shall see. He was a 4th round (#119) pick in 2022.
I have him too high at # 11 - unless he stops playing like # 2, and starts playing like # 1, in 2027.
12) Sammy Stafura
Who cannot love this rabid Mets fan and talented player?
I perhaps should have snuck him into my top 10.
Acquired in a trade deadline deal that sent Luke Weaver packing, Slamming Sammy’s power was utterly neutered in Brooklyn (2 HRs in 82 at bats), after an explosive homer month in another organization.
Ballistic missiles also can’t leave Cyclone Park.
Sammy (a 43rd overall pick in 2023) likely is Binghamton-bound in 2027. Not hitter-friendly there, but better than Brooklyn Acres, so he should thrive.
He ended up 2026 in an injury-shortened 303 at bats. He hit 22 HRs and drove in 59 and scored 59.
He was 22 of 25 in steals, and 85 of 99 as a pro, is very attractive an attribute. 102 Ks and 41 walks in 81 games.
Fine glove at SS, also played 2B.
He will be 22 years old in 2027, and he is 6’0”, 188.
I could see him move into the Mets’ top 5 prospects in 2027, and be a Mets starting shortstop in 2028. Why not?
13) Aiden Smith
Another trade acquisition, and drafted 124th overall in 2023 by Seattle, who was dealt to Tampa, who traded him to acquire Mr. Smith.
That was the Freddy Peralta deal, in which the Mets also got Gary Gill Hill and Emilien Pitre.
Smith has really good talent.
High Ks (111 in 80 games). His hot hitting for Brooklyn, however, got him up to .238/.317/.426 for the essentially half season, with 15 homers and 27 of 30 in steals. 53 RBIs, 64 runs scored.
We will find out how good Smitty is in 2027 in a full minors season.
The 6-1 190 righty OF slugger turns 23 next July. Strong arm, fine outfielder. He could fit into the Mets outfield somewhere in second half 2028 or in 2029.
14) Cole Mathis
The 54th overall pick in 2024, yet the 1B/3B has had only 363 pro PAs, which makes me leery about ranking him at all. He makes Jack Reimer look like Lou Gehrig, so far.
Carson Benge, in the same draft, has over 1,200 plate appearances, as a point of extreme contrast. David Peterson did better after the trade as a Cub than Mathis has so far as a Mets prospect. In fact, Mathis was just 5 for 40 with 9 walks, after he was acquired on June 25. He went .238/.370/.517 in 2026.
And he had only 189 total at bats this year. Off to Arizona he went.
A 6’2, 210 righty slugger who played more 1B than 3B so far.
He was ranked #15 prospect as a Cub in 2025, and his MLB prospect write up last year in part said this as interesting background:
“Mathis broke out as one of college baseball's best two-way players as a sophomore in 2023, when he led the College of Charleston in OPS (1.014) and ERA (3.45) before finishing second in the Cape Cod League with 11 homers in 38 games. He concentrated on hitting last spring while dealing with an elbow injury, bouncing back from a slow start to slash .335/.472/.650 en route to becoming the highest pick in Cougars history. After signing for $1,681,200 as a second-rounder, he had Tommy John surgery in August.
“Mathis employs an effortless, if not picturesque, right-handed stroke and a very patient approach to produce hard contact to all fields. He rarely strayed from the zone or swung and missed in college, though he may need to turn his bat loose more often in pro ball because he takes a lot of strikes.”
“Chances are”, he’s never heard of Nat King Cole or Johnny Mathis.
Hopefully, Cole can do great in 2027, so that I can “wear a silly grin” at his performance.
15) Cleiner Ramirez
No one can be finer than Cleiner, who hopefully will solidly hit like Kiner.
He is another Mets bonus baby teenager ($1,372,500) whom Mets fans will love by 2030. He hit 7 DSL HRs, and stole 18 of 19.
But he went cold after June, finishing his DSL season by going 11 for 69 in July and August against ultra-super-duper-soft DSL pitching, which I find slightly concerning. But he was just 17, if you know what I mean. And the way he looks at the plate is way beyond compare.
Plays next year as an 18 year old.
Will he be a Mets starting shortstop in 2030? Very possibly.
That’s it for the dudes in my venerable # 11 thru # 15.
An interesting bunch, with 3 trade acquisitions amongst the five, and in fact, as you will see, an amazing 10 of my top 15 this year arrived via 2026 trade, 2026 draft, or 2025-26 international signings.
Next article up, my exceptional 6-10 dudes. All six of them.
8 comments:
Amazing that Reimer or Mathis might have been first base contenders for the Mets if either had 200-300 or more additional minor league plate appearances in 2026. But when you are always seemingly injured…your development gets retarded.
Reimer a righty hitter hit .179 against lefties in AA in 95 at bats. How doing so poorly vs. lefties is even possible, I do not know.
Mathis having a very unimpressive AFL. Despite just 4 Ks in 43 plate appearances, which is good, he is just 6 for 36 there. How you put the ball in play 32 of 36 times and generate just 4 hits is a head scratcher.
Injuries are a funny thing. Had randy Guzman been healthy all year, instead of only ending up with 294 plate appearances himself, he might very well impress so much with another 250 plate appearances that I might’ve had him at number 11, instead of out of my top 30 altogether. He’s just missed so much time the last two years. And at some point I gotta factor that in. I always go back to the 2018 minor league season of Pete Alonso. In minor league play, and Arizona that year, he played a whopping 159 games and drove in 142 runs. If you wanna put up numbers, that’ll get people‘s attention, you can’t be missing half the season. Just figure out a way to stay healthy.
In 2018, Alonso was up an incredible 686 times. In 2025 and 2026 combined, Guzman put up impressive A ball numbers but was up 577 times with 106 RBIs, but that was 109 fewer times up than Pete was in 2018 alone. Sad for Guzman.
This list goes to prove that the current Mets chain has less than 10 + prospects
Any team with Cleiner Ramirez in their top 15 needs a lot of revamping
No wonder Stearns did so much deadline trading
I agree that Reimer should be slotted lower. I am also interested to see where Ramirez goes next year.
I’d like a system with 5 guys in the TOP 100. The Mets’ only guy is the trade-acquired Rojas. That is only good if the Top 100 rankers are very wrong. Sometimes they are, missing Ewing last year. But I’d rather have 5 than 1.
He didn’t earn #11. For sure. My #11 assumes two things for 2027: he stays healthy, and because he is healthy, he has a BIG 2027. But he has yet to prove he can shine Vientos’ shoes, and that is sad.
thanks for doing this Tom
couple of things...6-10 is only 5 guys, not 6
where is Morabito at this point? he was 10A or 11A, at the beginning
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