Buried somewhat in his state-of-the-Mets press conference this week was team owner Steve Cohen’s dismay over the organization’s underwhelming track record in recent years of drafting and developing pitchers.
“We haven’t developed any pitching, which is actually pretty shocking,” Cohen said. “We’re certainly capable of doing it. We may not have had the right infrastructure in place [in the past].”
Lack of success on that front spurred the Mets to hit the free-agent market hard last winter, with long-term contracts for Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana totaling more than $185 million.
The previous winter, the Mets gave Max Scherzer a three-year deal worth $130 million. Such is the cost of not developing enough of your own pitching talent.
The last wave had Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz, all of whom were drafted and developed by the Mets. Two others, Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard, were developed by the Mets after they had been drafted by other teams.
But it has been eight years since the last member of that group — most of whom formed the backbone of the Mets’ 2015 World Series team — debuted in the major leagues.
David Peterson and Tylor Megill, drafted in 2017 and ’18, respectively, have at various points over the past few seasons provided solid middle-to-back-of-the-rotation help for the Mets.
But both regressed this season and have bounced between Triple-A and the major leagues.
Others the Mets drafted have served as trade capital. It’s a group that includes Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay, Simeon Woods-Richardson, Josh Wolf and JT Ginn.
Dunn was part of the trade with the Mariners that brought Edwin Diaz to the Mets. Kay and Woods-Richardson were dealt to the Blue Jays for Marcus Stroman. Wolf was part of the deal with the Guardians that brought Francisco Lindor to the Mets. Ginn was used as a chip to get Chris Bassitt from the A’s.
Another familiar name among the Mets’ draftees, Colin Holderman, was converted to a reliever and traded to the Pirates last year for Daniel Vogelbach.
Matt Allan was highly regarded emerging from the 2019 draft and is still in the organization, but the right-hander has since undergone two Tommy John surgeries, the last of which occurred in January.
And, of course, there was almost Kumar Rocker, who went unsigned by the Mets after concerns arose about his shoulder and elbow following the 2021 draft. He has since undergone Tommy John surgery with the Rangers.
Before last season, the Mets hired Jono Arnold as the minor league pitching coordinator, and in November added Eric Jagers as the director of pitching development. Both oversee the Mets’ “pitching lab” in Port St. Lucie, Fla., that uses data and technology to evaluate pitchers.
“I think it’s gone unbelievable, but it’s not like you’re going to hire somebody one offseason and then have five major league prospects ready the next year,” Mets director of player development Kevin Howard said. “It takes a couple of years to develop, and I’m really happy with where our pitching is right now, so hopefully we’ll have some of those arms that are options for the big league team in the upcoming years.”
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Mike Vasil, recently promoted to Triple-A Syracuse, is at the top of that list. Dominic Hamel and Christian Scott at Double-A Binghamton, and Blade Tidwell, the Mets’ second-round draft pick last year — now at High-A Brooklyn — are also among the names in that group.
“Every team deals with injuries and trades, and we had some guys that were really exciting that have gone in some trades,” said Howard, who has spent the past two seasons overseeing the Mets farm system. “But I think we have plenty of talent left in the system and we continue to add some really interesting arms and talented pitchers every year in the draft.”
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Digging into the Eduardo Escobar return
The trade last week that sent Eduardo Escobar to the Angels for minor league pitchers Landon Marceaux and Coleman Crow brought all facets of the Mets organization together, from the front office to the professional scouts, the amateur scouts and Jagers from the player development side.
Marceaux, a 2021 third-round draft pick from LSU, was a pitcher that rated highly with Mets scouts two years ago and became the key component of the deal. Jagers lent his expertise by digging in on the analytics side with information on pitch shape and mechanics.
Marceaux’s velocity lags, with a fastball in the low-90s, but the Mets are banking on improvement in that area.
“Our scouts really liked him out of the draft, and that’s a big reason for the trade,” Howard said. “We see upside with the frame and the engine and with the delivery … if he can get more out of the tank with his fastball, you’ve got a serious weapon there as a starter.”
Crow, a 28th-round pick by the Angels in the 2019 draft, has been sidelined by elbow swelling, but recently began throwing live batting practice. Both pitchers have been assigned to Double-A Binghamton.
Want to catch a game? The Mets schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
The waiting game
Mark Vientos has handled his demotion to Syracuse about as well as the Mets could have hoped, according to Howard.
The 23-year-old corner infielder/DH was optioned to the minors on June 18 after getting buried on the bench and receiving limited opportunities with the Mets.
“I think he’s in a great spot and we’re in a great spot,” Howard said. “To be as young as he is and knocking on the door, there’s not a lot of people that can say that. Most people don’t crack into the big leagues that young.
“He would love to be playing every day in the big leagues, and so would a lot of people, but the reality is even a guy with his talent level needs to wait their turn sometimes and they need to force the door open and take advantage of their opportunity when it comes.”
Howard returned in recent days from a visit with the Syracuse club, and said Vientos has maintained a positive attitude about the situation.
“He’s working about as hard as I’ve ever seen him work,” Howard said. “He’s not discouraged or concerned. He just wants to keep improving and he knows he’s going to get his opportunity sooner or later.”
