The Mets farm system finally has the outfielders they've been missing for years

The New York Mets farm system was revamped this summer at the trade deadline. Because four of their top ten prospects are new to the organization via trade, fans were willing to accept the sell-off a little easier.

The Mets were already trending upward in terms of young talent. The trade deadline made it better, specifically in one area where they’ve been lacking for several seasons.

It’s not the pitching portion of the farm system where the Mets loaded up. That’s still a little suspect with several pitchers in the minors outperforming expectations this year. It’s in the outfield where the Mets have been relatively bone dry for years that suddenly includes multiple really good options.

The NY Mets farm system hasn’t had an outfielder to get excited about for a while

The addition of Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford in the Justin Verlander trade alone provided the club with two notable outfielders with a future directing them toward Flushing. Jett Williams transitioning from shortstop to center field has paid off as well and given them yet another option to eventually patrol the outfield grass at Citi Field 81 teams a season.

New York hasn’t had a significant outfield prospect since Jarred Kelenic or Pete Crow-Armstrong and even they didn’t take off until after they were traded away. We have to go back to the days of Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo when the Mets last had any sort of high-profile outfield prospect. Neither of them were ever quite as lauded as Gilbert or maybe even Williams. Desmond Lindsay hung around for several seasons in the top ten list of the Mets farm system but failed to reach his ceiling and the major leagues.

For the Mets to go this long without any high-profile outfielder coming up through the system is an accomplishment no one set out to make. However, sometimes you find help from unexpected places. Jeff McNeil’s ability to play the outfield has helped make up for this at times. And with Williams right now, the Mets seem to be interested in using his speed to create one of their own.

Through the young parts of their professional careers, it does look like Williams and Gilbert may be the most likely to find a major league job as a regular outfielder whereas Clifford might fall in line best as one of those first baseman/corner outfielder types.

Whatever it is that becomes of those three and dear old Mets prospect Alex Ramirez who despite a down year in 2023 remains an option for the future, it’s a nice change of pace to actually have some bodies in the outfield coming up through the pipeline.