Mets Prospect Showcase: First baseman JT Schwartz

While the 2022 New York Mets are currently one of the most exciting teams to watch in baseball, all great teams know that the way to maintain success long term is through a good farm system.

Now that we are just about 6 weeks into the season and stats are beginning to level off, now is just as good a time as any to see which of the Mets' top prospects appear to be taking a step forwards in their development.

As of May, JT Schwartz is one of the New York Mets' hottest and best performing prospects in the minor leagues.

A California native, Schwartz was drafted out of UCLA by the Mets in the 4th round of the 2021 MLB draft, 111th overall.

JT's 2021 season at UCLA seriously boosted his stock heading into the draft, as the 44 games he played in for the Bruins, Schwartz posted a .396 batting average with a .514 OBP, while slugging 8 home runs and 45 RBI, prompting the Mets to pull the trigger on him.

Standing at 6' 4" and weighting 215 lbs, Schwartz entered the 2022 season as the Mets' 19th ranked prospect, which is very high up on the list for a player drafted just last July, and was assigned to the Mets High-A affiliate team, the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Thus far through the 2022 season, Schwartz has served as the Cyclones' starting first baseman. At the time of writing, Schwartz has played in 28 of Brooklyn's first 29 games this season, starting 26 of them at first base.

Over these 28 games at the plate, Schwartz has had a grand total of 91 at bats in 108 plate appearances, over which he has logged 23 hits, including 5 doubles, 1 triple & 1 home run while driving in 10 RBI and drawing 17 walks.

Overall, JT Schwartz is posting an overall batting average of .253 with .382 OBP. Not to shabby for a 22 year old with less than a year of professional experience under his belt.

According to his scouting report, despite being a first baseman, Schwartz is not viewed as a slugger, and is a fair better contact hitter that maintain a solid batting average and draw walks, so in that sense, he is performing just as advertised when the Mets drafted him.

While his numbers are good for Single-A ball, Schwartz still needs to maintain his consistency at the plate over the next few months with Brooklyn before he can be considered move up to Double-A Binghamton and eventually Triple-A Syracuse.

With that said MLB.com has his slated for an estimated call up to the majors for the 2024 season, and based on the way he is performing in his first full year as a professional baseball player, JT Schwartz appears to be on the right path to the big leagues.

Hopefully he can his batting average and on base percentage up nice and high moving forwards and with any luck, we may see him in the Major Leagues sooner rather than later.

And if you're reading this JT, best of luck to you this year and beyond. We'll be watching.