Overlooked NY Mets prospect deserves your attention after an excellent season debut

The New York Mets have plenty of prospects in the minor leagues that have potential to shine and, at some point, expand on their talents in the major leagues. There is one prospect in the St. Lucie Mets Single-A team who is off to a great start to the season and deserves everyone's attention. The prospect is right-hand pitcher Will Watson.

Mets prospect Will Watson should get attention after an excellent debut

On Tuesday, April 8, Watson made his season debut against the Lakeland Flying Tigers. He went four and one-third innings, striking out seven batters and only allowing one run and no walks. The run he allowed was an unearned run, keeping both his ERA and WHIP at 0.00.

Watson, the 23-year-old 2024 seventh-round draft pick from Southern California, who the Mets signed in July 2024 and activated two months later, has lots of outstanding statistics that should draw the attention of fans. His four-seam fastball is a good example. It was mostly around 90 mph with the highest up to 97 mph in his first start on Tuesday. His slider was effective as well. He got a whiff and chase rate of 83.3% using that pitch just seven times.

Also, in his first start, he used other pitches such as his changeup, cutter, and sinker. He used his cutter for the majority of his outing over any other pitch. Overall, he threw 56 pitches, and 36 of them were strikes.

With one start in 2025 already under his belt, Watson has appeared to have used multiple pitches to his advantage based on how quickly he can make his pitches. Thus, he has made good progress in his potential to be a solid prospect in the Mets farm system. Although he is currently in Single-A, it's encouraging to see him succeed this early in his minor league career.

Before his first start of the season, Watson was already progressing well. When he was playing in college, USC, he had a winning record of 5-2 in 50.1 innings pitched in 2024.