The future is bright.
The Mets had a total of four prospects land on MLB Pipeline’s new top 100 prospects list for 2023.
Here’s who made the list:
No. 3 overall, catcher Francisco Alvarez
No. 21 overall, third baseman Brett Baty
No. 36 overall, catcher Kevin Parada
No. 96 overall, outfielder Alex Ramirez
The same four players made the 2022 list, in which Alvarez was No. 1, Baty was No. 18, Parada No. 37 and Ramirez No. 85.
Mets’ shortstop prospect Jett Williams made Baseball America’s Top 100 list for 2023 as the No. 98 ranked prospect, but he did not make MLB pipeline’s list.
Parada was taken by the Mets at No. 11 overall in the 2022 MLB Draft.
Ramirez is a highly touted outfield prospect, and teams asked the Mets about him at last season’s trade deadline.
Baty, 23, and Alvarez, 21, both made their MLB debuts last season and are expected to emerge as contributors on the big-league club in 2023.
Although Baty went just 7-for-38 in 11 games with the Mets, he did have two home runs. He also had a strong campaign between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse in 2022, slashing .315/.410/.533 with a .843 OPS, 19 homers and 60 RBI.
As for Alvarez, he played in just five games in the bigs and went 2-for-14 with a home run and a double. Alvarez had another monstrous campaign in the minors, slashing .260/.374/.511 with a .885 OPS, 27 home runs and 78 RBIs between Double-A and Triple-A.
While Alvarez is expected to be a contributor this season, GM Billy Eppler wouldn’t commit to his top prospect catcher making the Opening Day roster.
“I’m not going to say one way or the other,” Eppler told Joel Sherman of The New York Post. “I’m going to let time and the process of evaluation organically allow that to happen.”
And the Mets want Alvarez to remain as a catcher.
“Yes, I believe he is a catcher,” Eppler told The Post. “Because I have in-house data that shows improvement and strong receiving ability from Double-A, and that it was good from his limited time at Triple-A.”
Read more:
– Mets Re-Sign Veteran Catcher to Bolster Depth
– Mets Planning Pursuit of Shohei Ohtani
– 3 Keys to Mets’ World Series Title Chances in 2023
Follow Pat Ragazzo on Twitter (@ragazzoreport), be sure to bookmark Inside The Mets and check back daily for news, analysis and more.
.