NY Mets Friday Farming: The 2021 Prospect Awards, winners and losers

Next up: Pitcher of the Year. It’s JT Ginn.

It might have been Matthew Allan, the Mets star who just went through Tommy John’s surgery. But Ginn really showed promise in his first year of professional baseball.

In 18 starts, Ginn’s ERA is 3.03, he has 81 strikeouts, and a respectable WHIP of 1.05.

Besides, Ginn already underwent TJ surgery. He wasn’t going to pitch until this season anyway. Already going through that surgery makes Ginn very dependable going forward. The Mets know what they will get from him and he has a solid timetable.

He was promoted to High-A Brooklyn after just 8 starts for St Lucie. We might see him in Double-A at the beginning of next season.

I know what we’re thinking. Why?

Steve Cohen’s decision to not sign Kumar Rocker sucks. It really does. It makes Steve Cohen the Biggest Loser in our awards.

Rocker has an electric arm, is an unbelievable talent, and wanted to play in New York. Unless his medical records showed an amputated arm, I cannot find any excuse not to sign him.

Besides Rocker, the Mets now have a depleted farm system. Since 2016, the Mets have six first-round picks. In fact, Rocker is only the second first-rounder to not sign with the Mets. The first dates back to 1970 when shortstop George Ambrow did not sign.

Since 2016, the Mets’ first-rounders included RHP Justin Dunn, LHP Anthony Kay, LHP David Peterson, OF Jarred Kelenic, 3B Brett Baty, OF Pete Crow-Armstrong, and now RHP Kumar Rocker. Only two of those are still with the Mets. Dunn and Kelenic are with Seattle, Kay is with Toronto, Crow-Armstrong is with Chicago, and Rocker did not sign. That’s a bad place to be.

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You just cannot miss with your first-round picks, but the Mets really have as of late. They need to turn that around if they want to actually build a competitive team moving forward.