NY Mets prospect cements bleak future with his spring training performance

A few weeks ago, we discussed why Alex Ramírez deserved a lot of reps at spring training. At one point, Ramírez was one of the most talked about prospects in the New York Mets system. However, after a back-to-back season of underperforming at the plate, his stock as a prospect fell dramatically. According to MLB Pipeline, he went from being a top-five prospect in the Mets system to being off the top-30 prospect list. The hope was a big spring training could reignite the excitement around him.

However, after getting reps in during the first week and a half of spring training, the Mets have re-assigned Ramírez to minor league camp. Now that we've seen Ramírez in major league camp, we can evaluate how he did and what this means for his future with the Mets and baseball.

What Alex Ramírez spring training performance means for his future

Ramírez appeared in eight games with the Mets during spring training, which is the most of any player on the roster. In those eight games, he had 15 at-bats, producing three hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts. He didn't record a home run or an RBI during those chances. While it's a small sample size, he had a slash line of .200/.250/200.

While these numbers aren't good on their own, they only get worse when looking at the quality of the pitching he faced. Baseball-Reference has a stat called quality of pitching face, which measures how good the pitcher the batter is facing based on what level the pitcher played in the previous season. It's measured on a one to ten scale, with one being a rookie ball pitcher and ten being an MLB pitcher. Ramírez quality of pitching face this spring was 6.1, which is just under Double-A quality pitching.

While quality of the pitching face is not a perfect stat, it does continue a concerning trend in Ramírez's game. The trend is that as Ramírez has continued to climb the minor league ladder, his stats have dropped. In his last two and a half seasons in High-A and Double-A, he's slashed .227/.306/.331 with 17 home runs and 133 RBIs. Compared to his time at Single-A, where he slashed .271/.342/.412 with 11 home runs and 72 RBIs.

Ramírez's numbers took such a dramatic drop just by jumping from A ball to Double-A; how can you have any hope that he can return to his production? The pitching will only get more and more difficult as he rises throughout the minors, and he's proven that he cannot handle higher-quality pitching. His numbers in Single-A are likely the best number he'll put up in his career. This will cause Ramírez to be nothing more than a career minor league player.

Ramírez was never gonna return to a top prospect in the Mets organization. However, the hope was that a strong spring training could help him get back on track to being a servicable MLB player. But with this performance, it's unlikely we'll see him in the majors at all.