NY Mets have an obvious move they need to make with power-hitting prospect

For weeks now, first base has felt like the New York Mets’ version of a game of musical chairs. Brett Baty takes a turn. Mark Vientos takes a turn. Somebody makes a nice play, somebody hits a home run, and for a minute, it looks like maybe the music finally stopped. Then the defense gets messy, the bat cools off, or both happen at once, and the whole thing starts spinning all over again.

Meanwhile, Ryan Clifford is down in Triple-A preparing for just about every role instead of fully settling into the one the Mets may need him to do. One of the organization’s top prospects keeps splitting time between first base and the outfield while the big-league club keeps cycling through options in Queens. If first base could realistically be part of Clifford’s future, the Mets should stop treating it like a part-time job and start making it his everyday one.

The Mets need to make Ryan Clifford their everyday first baseman in Syracuse

Clifford may not be lighting Triple-A on fire to begin the season, but he has still been productive enough to stay on the Mets’ radar. After hitting .237/.356/.470 with 29 home runs and 93 RBIs across Double-A and Triple-A in 2025, the Mets’ No. 4 prospect has opened this season hitting .244/.327/.442 with four home runs and 15 RBIs in 86 at-bats. It has been a solid enough start, and with the way first base has looked in Queens, his name should only keep coming up more often.

The bigger question is what exactly the Mets are doing with him defensively. This is the same team that came into the season treating first base like a science experiment gone wrong. Jorge Polanco, who had played exactly one inning there before this season, somehow became part of the plan. Brett Baty has been tried there. Mark Vientos has been tried there. At this point, the Mets are running out of ways to pretend this patchwork plan was ever a real one.

So naturally, with one of your top power-hitting prospects sitting in Syracuse and already having experience at first base, the logical move would be to make sure he is stacking reps there every day. Apparently not. In 24 starts this season, Clifford has made just nine at first base, 13 in the outfield, and two at designated hitter. Meanwhile, Jose Rojas, a 33-year-old journeyman who has spent most of his time in the minors since 2016 and has appeared in only 83 major league games, has made 11 starts there.  Nothing against Rojas, but if Clifford is one phone call away, why does it feel like the Mets are treating him like the emergency contact instead of the actual backup plan?

Just in case the Mets needed another reminder, Jorge Polanco is now on the shelf with an Achilles injury. Brett Baty is hitting .220 with a .579 OPS. Mark Vientos is hitting .243 with a .637 OPS. Neither has exactly looked like a long-term answer at first base, whether with the glove, the arm, or the bat. At some point, the Mets need to stop improvising and start preparing. Clifford may not be the answer right now, but it would be nice if the organization at least acted as if he could be.

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