3 Mets prospects eligible for the Rule 5 Draft the team should consider adding to the 40-man roster
Do any of these players deserve a spot on the 40-man roster to protect themselves from the Rule 5 Draft?
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The Rule 5 Draft isn’t the most exciting event in Major League Baseball, but a noteworthy one nonetheless. Some notable players have been selected in the past. Roberto Clemente is probably the most well-known. Former New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana was another, although not claimed by them. This happened before he came to Queens.
There is a ton of strategy when it comes to protecting players who are Rule 5 Draft eligible. Because the players who are taken are required to stay on the 26-man roster all year or be offered back to their original club, teams must have confidence in their abilities. The Mets have a couple of players new to the organization or Rule 5 Draft absent from their 40-man roster right now they need to strongly consider adding prior to this winter’s draft.
Honorable mentions should go out to Carlos Cortes and Luke Ritter. While each is having a productive year on the farm, they seem more capable of escaping the Rule 5 Draft unselected or don’t quite fit into what the Mets need right now. If Billy Eppler and I underwent some sort of Freaky Friday situation, I’d gladly give them a shot in the big leagues this September. It wouldn’t be unsurprising to see at least one of them traded before the Rule 5 Draft in order to award the Mets with at least something in return.
1) NY Mets prospect Justin Jarvis is the most obvious player to protect in the Rule 5 Draft
Justin Jarvis is the player the Mets picked up in the trade deadline deal for Mark Canha. The 23-year-old right-handed pitcher came over from the Milwaukee Brewers already eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. He’d only pitched 3 games in Triple-A at the time. Since joining the Mets, he has gotten a few more.
The results for Jarvis haven’t been there, however. In 6 starts for Syracuse, Jarvis is 0-3 with an 8.38 ERA. It was a trend already ongoing with the Brewers’ Triple-A team in Nashville. Jarvis is now a combined 0-5 with a 9.29 ERA with both organizations at this level.
The Mets don’t have to force Jarvis onto their big league roster just yet but giving him one of their coveted 40-man roster spots is a must. Otherwise, what was the point of trading for him in the first place?
Jarvis might be safe from getting selected in the Rule 5 Draft simply because he hasn’t shown enough to warrant a major league role. It’s not worth the risk. We’d have to believe adding Jarvis to the 40-man roster or trading him in a separate deal was a part of the Mets’ plan all along. Surely they could have gotten something else for Jarvis if they hadn’t already planned out space for him on their 40-man roster, right?
2) NY Mets prospect Jeremiah Jackson is another trade addition to consider for the 40-man roster
There’s also Jeremiah Jackson, another JJ the team acquired at the trade deadline. This one comes to us via the Dominic Leone deal. He’s a curious cat. Jackson is on his way to setting a new personal-high in home runs for a single season on the farm. Stuck in Double-A at the moment, his biggest problem has been hitting for average. He was just a .215 batter last season in Double-A. He has been better overall this year yet not enough to earn him a promotion to Triple-A quite yet.
Jackson has hit .239/.336/.413 for Binghamton in his first 110 plate appearances. Highlighting this stay are the 5 home runs which combined with the 15 hit prior to joining the Mets organization gives him a solid 20.
Jackson has played all over the field in his professional career. He has logged a time of time at shortstop but has gotten increasingly more familiar with second base. Jackson can also be found at third base and in the outfield.
A low batting average, high power potential prospect like Jackson might be a little too far from major league-ready for anyone to steal him from the Mets in the Rule 5 Draft. Teams with no plans of competing next season could surprise us. Jackson has shown off speed on the base paths. He’s a utility man a team could suffer through the growing pains with in 2024 and if things don’t work out, demote for the 2025 campaign to freshen up some of those skills.
3) NY Mets prospect Brandon McIlwain has had an impressive and unlikely rise through the system
Brandon McIlwain is an undrafted amateur free agent signing whose eligibility for the Rule 5 Draft comes around this December. He hasn’t torn the cover off the ball, however, this year’s performance has made him a much more viable candidate to at least sip some cups of big league coffee.
McIlwain is now in Triple-A after slashing .260/.342/.394 in 360 Double-A at-bats. He added 7 home runs and 47 RBI which already tied his previous high in dingers and surpassed the RBI total.
An athletic outfielder and two-sport athlete in college playing quarterback, the ceiling for what McIlwain would accomplish as a professional baseball player already seems to be smashed. His college athletic career didn’t work out the way he had hoped, which actually led to the Mets having the ability to take a chance on him when McIlwain went undrafted.
In his 114 plate appearances in Triple-A, McIlwain has hit .247/.412/.494 with 5 home runs. He has added 8 stolen bases which is a bit of a surprise considering he had 9 one level down.
As a fifth outfielder, McIlwain might intrigue teams enough to stash on the roster for those dirty duties of replacing inferior defenders or pinch running. The Mets look like they already won by signing him. The next phase is to capitalize on his minor league success.
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