This probably won’t be the year where any New York Mets prospect has a huge impact on the big league club. That storyline will be saved for next season. Even so, the Mets have plenty of minor leaguers worth watching.
You already know the hype about some of the big guns. Francisco Alvarez is on several top ten lists. Brett Baty could certainly climb closer to a top spot as well.
When it comes to the stock of Mets minor league prospects, those lesser-talked-about ones are far tougher to pinpoint. Guys a little further down lists have as far more room to see their stock skyrocket or plummet. In 2022, we should expect these two Mets prospects experience a bull market and another go full bear.
Mets prospect Dominic Hamel will see his stock skyrocket
The third-round pick of the Mets last year, Dominic Hamel is a 23-year-old righty who ranks ninth on MLB.com’s list of the top 30 Mets prospects. He is actually ahead of second-round pick Calvin Ziegler perhaps due to the difference in age. Ziegler is only 19 after all.
We haven’t seen much of Hamel in the pros yet. This is the year where he can establish himself a little more and become the answer to a question Mets fans may be curious to know: who is the second-best pitching prospect the team has?
Matt Allan is the official answer to the best one although he could be passable. A great year out of someone like Hamel could put him in the position J.T. Ginn was prior to getting traded to the Oakland Athletics. The Mets lack high-profile starting pitching prospects. Hamel, almost by default, could be the next truly superb one to make it to the show.
An ETA of 2024 right now, it would be a quick rise to the major leagues. It’s not entirely unusual for a college player to move up the system quickly. Hamel may not reach the same notoriety as Allan this season but he could come pretty close.