2 Mets prospects whose stock will skyrocket this year, 1 whose will plummet

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.

Mets prospect Jaylen Palmer has a lot to improve in order to avoid seeing his stock plummet

Jaylen Palmer is a Brooklyn native who went to school in Flushing so there’s already a great story about him rising up the minor league ranks and making it to the Mets. A member of the organization since 2018, he hasn’t done a whole lot.

His first two years were productive but last year’s return after the absent pandemic year of 2020 was not so great. He batted .244/.354/.368. Palmer can draw walks well but he also strikes out a ton. He fanned a total of 146 times last year in 460 trips to the plate. This could be overlooked if he was hitting for a lot of power. This isn’t the type of player he is. Palmer has only 14 professional home runs in 192 games. Over this course, he has 281 strikeouts.

Palmer was already in a tough spot within this organization to get overlooked. Ronny Mauricio is the top middle infielder you’ve heard about plenty in recent years. Palmer, a guy who has also seen some outfield action as well, may only be able to save his stock from falling if he becomes a credible center field option for the organization. Oh, cutting down on the strikeouts would be pretty important, too. Pitching will only get better as he advances.

MLB.com has him at number 14 for the Mets. A couple of nice tools at his disposal, such as speed and his batting eye, Palmer will need to add at least one more to avoid getting passed by the next cluster of draft picks.