There’s a new former NY Mets prospect who suddenly looks like the real deal

While Kade Morris has yet to break through at the MLB level, another former New York Mets prospect is making a name for himself with the Athletics: J.T. Ginn.

The right-handed starter, whom the Mets originally selected No. 52 overall in the 2020 MLB Draft, was sent packing in the Chris Bassitt trade (alongside Adam Oller, the team's Organizational Pitcher of the Year in 2021). And while Bassitt delivered a terrific season in Queens, posting a 3.42 ERA over 181.2 innings, Ginn has since blossomed into one of the A's best pitchers.

Across 17 appearances (14 starts) in 2026, the 27-year-old right-hander has compiled a 3.16 ERA and 4.01 FIP, striking out 21.3% of the hitters he's faced. His 1.2 fWAR would tie him with Clay Holmes for the second-best mark on the Mets and is roughly half of the value Bassitt provided in 2022 (2.8 fWAR).

We said it as Morris was ascending up the A's minor-league ranks, but it'd sure be nice to have a pitcher of his Ginn's ilk around right now.

J.T. Ginn's success with Athletics is an indictment on Mets' long-term planning

Much of Ginn's success is a credit to the Athletics; he tossed only 92 innings in the Mets organization before being traded. Still, he was excellent in that 2021 season between Low-A and High-A (3.03 ERA) and emerged as a legitimate prospect within the system prior to the trade.

That entire 2020 Mets draft class is now a long forgotten memory, as none of the six players selected remain with the organization. The team's first-round pick (Pete Crow-Armstrong) is now a star in Chicago, while no one selected after Ginn is currently in the big leagues. It was obviously a difficult scouting situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the failures of that year are partly to blame for the team's current predicament.

Save for rising star Nolan McLean and 2026 sensation Christian Scott, the Mets don't have any under-30 starting pitchers on the big-league roster. There are some notable prospects in the pipeline (Jonah Tong, Jack Wenninger, Jonathan Santucci, etc.), but missing out on the developments of guys like Ginn and Morris are why the front office has to keep making bold trades, like when they swapped Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong for Freddy Peralta. It's a cyclical nightmare that has kept this pitching staff from being great.

Facing the prospect of a lost season, hopefully the organization has learned its lesson and will double down on the in-house talent already proliferating throughout the farm system.

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