NY Mets Friday Farming: 2 ways the Mets can improve the farm

It’s officially the post-season and all the New York Mets can do is root for one of the teams involved from the sidelines. They haven’t won the NL East since going to the World Series in 2015.

A lot of this has to do with the team’s mini-rebuild from 2017 to 2019 and a failure to rebuild the team’s farm. Drafting players like Pete Alonso, Tylor Megill, among others in recent years has certainly helped.

Mets front office has opted for “selling the farm” recently. Getting Javier Báez as a “last resort” only for the team to collapse in the final months is a perfect example. They’ve sold high-value picks, including Pete Crow-Armstrong and Jerrad Kelenic, and then failed to sign this year’s first-round pick, Kumar Rocker.

It doesn’t look great for the Mets.

I love Báez, but the Mets would’ve been better off to just try signing him in the offseason, rather than trade away one of the team’s biggest future assets. The result would not have changed. But if the Mets sat and did nothing, owner Steve Cohen would start breathing fire.

Right now, the Mets’ system ranks #22 according to MLB Pipeline, but they do have Francisco Álvarez which is a huge bright spot. Still, they planned this recent draft around signing Kumar Rocker then failed to sign him.

The teams sitting behind the Mets are the Atlanta Braves (which is the good news), Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies, Philadelphia Phillies (also good news), Oakland Athletics, Houston Astros, and Chicago White Sox.

In this installment of “Friday Farming,” we’re going to gloss over how the Mets can build back up the farm system, what it entails, and how they can avoid their current situation moving forward.

Why have the Mets been trading away future assets?

Remember the trade that sent Jerrad Kelenic to Seattle and both Edwin Díaz, Robinson Canó to New York? Why they even took an aging second baseman who is a defensive-first player at this stage, I have no idea. Edwin Díaz makes more sense in theory, but he’s been atrocious.

In three years, Díaz has had some heartbreaking blown saves. He’s actually worse more often than he’s elite. When his slider is good, it’s good, but he’s way too inconsistent to be an elite closer. They could’ve opted to trust Aaron Loup or Trevor May and put Díaz in a relief role.

You need to trust your best players in big situations, but Díaz has often not been the best player. His ERA in 2021 was 3.21, 32 saves (6 blown), and his career WHIP is over 1.1. For a closer, it’s bad.

Javier Báez is an All-Star infielder who improves any defense in an infinite amount of ways, but it’s hard to see a concrete trade deadline plan. The only teams who really did any worse were the Detroit Tigers (who didn’t improve their farm at all) and the Colorado Rockies.

I love Báez, but the Mets could’ve pursued him at free agency and still kept Crow-Armstrong.

One thing the Mets actually do well is in who they select, specifically deep.

Jacob deGrom was a ninth-round draft pick. Tylor Megill was an eighth-round selection. Time and time again, the Mets are getting key “finds.” They’re able to turn low-round picks into steals. Drafting deGrom was like drafting the Tom Brady of baseball. Megill is up there, and he’s no deGrom, but Megill certainly has potential.

JT Ginn is turning out to show some potential. He was no deep draft pick, but he’s been impressive in the minors during his first year, even earning himself a promotion to High-A Brooklyn after just eight starts.

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The Mets have some stars coming up through the system, but they’re falling behind. They need to start prioritizing the farm if they want to end up in a World Series any time soon. Hopefully, the NL East’s future lack of competitiveness doesn’t force the Mets to sell prospects for wishful players, like it did this year.