This NY Mets prospect has a chance to be this year’s Brandon Sproat

You can’t think about the New York Mets future without an image of Brandon Sproat on the mound. A guy who ascended quickly through the system last year in his first professional season, the now 24-year-old is very much in the mix to be a constant contributor in the rotation at some point in 2025. Drafted in consecutive years by the Mets, first in the third round of 2022 and in the second round in 2023 when he did sign, the marriage between player and organization is one of destiny.

The quick rise by Sproat is a bit more atypical than how things go for all pitching prospects. At every stop until his final one in Triple-A, he excelled. No bother. It gives him a challenge to work before that final leap.

If you’re eager to figure out who the next Sproat will be, before the original even arrives, another Mets pitching prospect could be cut from the same cloth. The 2024 second round pick, Jonathan Santucci, is a lefty who may very well be on a similar trajectory if all goes according to plan in 2025.

Jonathan Santucci is a good bet to blaze through the Mets minor league system this year

Will Santucci get as far as Triple-A? I wouldn’t bet on it. But as a seasoned college player and his 22nd birthday already in the rearview, we could see the Mets push to elevate him more quickly than they would a younger player. He could always earn a trip to Syracuse by the end of the year. How he’ll perform as a professional is anyone’s guess because, like Sproat, he didn’t play an inning after getting drafted.

Santucci is coming off of a 2024 collegiate season at Duke where he was 6-1 with a 3.41 ERA in 13 innings. A strong strikeout rate at 14 per 9 coupled with some questions about his control (5.6 walks per 9, 8 wild pitches in only 58 innings), is only a glimpse of what he may be able to accomplish.

Sproat pitched far more before getting drafted. He logged 89.2 innings as a junior in 2022 and another 106.1 as a senior in 2023. IN three seasons for Duke, Santucci reached only 128.1 innings.

Numbers, especially in college where they literally play with different equipment (aluminum bats make no sense), don’t always translate into the professionals. Sproat was 8-3 with a 4.66 ERA as a senior in college. Against what we’d all have to assume was better competition in the minor leagues, year one included a 7-4 record and 3.40 ERA.

Mets fans will get their first glimpse of Santucci in Sunday’s Spring Breakout game. This was the case with Sproat in 2024 who immediately looked the part of future stud. We won’t judge Santucci on the one inning he’ll probably toss in this exhibition game. If you’re up for a friendly wager, he’s a good guess as to which Mets prospect could best replicate what Sproat did last year.