Is Pete Crow-Armstrong bound for stardom?

It was a strange Friday for former New York Mets first-round draft picks. Jarred Kelenic was sent to the minor leagues right before opening a series against the Mets. Kumar Rocker found a new home, playing for the Tri-City Valleycats of the Frontier League.

As if that wasn’t enough random news about former Mets first-round draft picks who never actually played for the big league team for one reason or another, FanSided’s Mark Carman and Robert Murray decided to discuss Pete Crow-Armstrong and how he is bound for stardom.

Drafted 19th overall in 2020, Armstrong only played 6 professional games for the Mets last season before an injury knocked him out for the rest of the year. Now a member of the Chicago Cubs by way of the Javier Baez-Trevor Williams trade, he has slashed .373/.467/.569 in his first 120 plate appearances in Single-A this season.

As 1 former Mets outfield prospect struggles, another is thriving

PCA is the sixth-ranked prospect in the Cubs’ system with an ETA of 2024 according to MLB.com. It’s not exactly guaranteeing much at all. He hasn’t even gotten 200 hundred plate appearances as a big league player.

Nonetheless, it sounds like if Kelenic fails to ever achieve what many Mets fans feared he would, there could be someone else doing it within the National League.

Heading into the Mets’ series against the Seattle Mariners, there was plenty of discussions all over the Flushing multiverse about the infamous trade. People still talk about it often because the ramifications are still out there. The young pieces the Mets gave up in the trade still have time to figure things out. Adding to the fact that the Mets officially bid farewell to Robinson Cano this week as well, there were plenty of numbers to analyze and takes to deliver.

The Crow-Armstrong for two major leaguers trade from last summer is a little different. Baez has already left the Mets after he was rented for two months. Williams is the club’s long man out of the bullpen and while effective at times, isn’t worth any prospect of notoriety.

The Mets will probably view this as a lost trade for the simple fact that they didn’t even make it to the 2021 postseason. If PCA becomes even a fairly competent big league player, there will be some regrets.

Of course, if it’s Trevor Williams who gets a big out in the 2022 World Series before the ball gets handed over to closer Edwin Diaz for the final three and the Mets win a championship, it won’t matter much what either of those two once-prized outfielder prospects achieve. The ultimate goal is World Series victory. At any cost, there will be casualties along the way.