5 Mets minor league predictions for the 2022 season

Mets prospects Brett Baty and Mark Vientos both play in the major leagues but one does it with a different team

In 2022, the MLB clock begins on Brett Baty and Mark Vientos. They have arrived. The two third base prospects we’ve been waiting for are major league players!

There is one wrinkle in this prediction. One of them is not with the Mets.

If all goes according to plan for the boys in Flushing, this July should be a time to seriously buy. The team failed to go “the whole nine yards” last July, instead settling for about five hypothetical yards and a field goal attempt.

This year, things need to be different. I suspect this means trading away one of their prized third base prospects.

There is a chance we do see one of these guys debut for the Mets long before we start thinking about July trades. If the Mets were to trade Jeff McNeil, they could conceivably move Eduardo Escobar over to second base at any point and promote one of these two farmhands. Because I don’t see it happening quite on Opening Day, the Mets are far more likely to have an alternative plan to start the season.

Vientos has already played some games in Triple-A so it’s only logical for him to get to the show this year. Baty is a little further behind but starting him in 2022 at the Triple-A level makes sense.

Between the two, I still think Vientos is the more likely to get traded. It’s hard to picture the Mets—even under a different regime—trading yet another first round pick of theirs.

For an asterisk on this prediction, both debut with the Mets in 2022 but Vientos ends up traded later on.