Who are the next young studs for the Mets? (Pt. 1)
The Mets have transformed their player development program to produce some top level minor league prospects
All of us are well-acquainted with the Big Five of Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat, Jonah Tong, Carson Benge, and Jett Williams by now. But who’s going to be following in their footsteps…and how closely behind?
I initially sat down wanting to compile a list of six players — three hitters and three pitchers — all in one shot, but that became cumbersome quickly. So, I’m breaking it into two parts: Part One (this part) will focus on position players, and Part Two will cover the three pitchers I’m most excited about beyond McLean, Sproat, and Tong.
Now, before I dive in, here’s a quick intro to scouting scores for the uninitiated:
To put it simply, prospects are graded on six key tools using a scale called the 20-80 scale. For position players, those tools are hitting, power, speed, arm strength, and fielding; pitching prospects are graded on the quality of their pitches (usually their fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup), as well as their command of their stuff.
As for the scale itself, it’s pretty simple:
20-30 is terrible.
40 is not great.
50 is average.
60 is All-Star caliber.
70-80 is the stuff of a superstar.
I also want to preface this by saying that I’m not trying to imply that I’m early or ahead of the game on any of these three names in any way — they’re top-15 prospects that have rocketed through the Mets’ farm, so quite literally everyone is aware of them. I’m merely saying that we should maybe be watching them even closer than we had been. If their rapid rises last season are any indication of what we can expect from them in the near future, their respective times in Queens may be approaching more rapidly than we initially thought.
And now, with those disclaimers out of the way, here are the three position players I’ll be watching closest in the coming season. Let’s get nerdy.
3B Jacob Reimer (No. 6 prospect, Double-A BNG)
2025 MiLB Totals: 122 G, 522 PA, .282/.379/.491, 125 H, 17 HR, 32 2B, 5 3B, 88 R, 77 RBI, 15 SB, 21.5%-11.1% K-BB%, .209 ISO, .338 BABIP, .399 wOBA, 157 wRC+
Latest Scouting Grades: Hit: 55 / Power: 50 / Run: 40 / Arm: 50 / Field: 45 / Overall: 50
MLB Comp: Max Muncy (2015 Grades: 45 / 40 / 40 / 45 / 45 / Overall: 45)
Given his placement just outside the Top 5 on the Mets’ prospect list, I imagine everyone reading this is plenty familiar with Jacob Reimer’s name as well. That’s for good reason: Reimer had a scorching 2025 campaign.
After an initial struggle at High-A in 2023 and then an injury-shortened follow-up campaign in 2024, Reimer entered the 2025 season as the Mets’ 15th overall prospect. Though his skillset was apparent, there were some questions about whether they’d consistently translate to in-game results.
Safe to say those concerns have been largely put to rest.
But it’s not just the eye-popping slash line or the position-leading wRC+ that have my hype meter going crazy. This is what has me extra stoked about Reimer:
Among third basemen with at least 500 plate appearances, Reimer led all of Minor League Baseball in isolated power (ISO) and ranked third in Speed score (Spd). No other third base prospect offered a profile quite like that in 2025.
For the unacquainted:
ISO measures a player’s raw power by looking at only their extra-base hits. It’s calculated by subtracting a hitter’s batting average from their slugging percentage. For example, in 2025, Juan Soto hit .263 and slugged .525, so his ISO was .262, ninth-best in MLB.
Spd is calculated by averaging six factors: a player’s stolen base percentage, stolen base attempts as a percentage of opportunities, triples, double plays grounded into as a percentage of opportunities, and runs scored as a percentage of times on base.
While ‘Spd’ doesn’t paint the entirety of a player’s baserunning portrait, it’s an excellent way of seeing exactly what they do with their time on the base paths. Told in tandem with a player’s stolen bases total or doubles/triples total, Spd can tell a few different stories. In the case of Reimer, it tells the story of an all-around slugger who has started to introduce a new element to his game: base stealing.
Though Reimer’s 15 stolen bases in 2025 were only good enough to tie for 20th among his MiLB peers, it reflected a 5x increase from his 2023 total of three (3) stolen bases. Couple that with a doubled homer output, and to say Reimer simply ‘bounced back’ from his hamstring injury would be putting it mildly.
Long story short, this kid’s fantastic, and he’s only going to get better. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a cup of coffee in 2026.
OF/2B A.J. Ewing (No. 7 prospect, Double-A BNG)
2025 MiLB Totals: 124 G, 564 PA, .315/.401/.429, 153 H, 3 HR, 26 2B, 10 3B, 87 R, 55 RBI, 70 SB, 18.6%-12.1% K-BB%, .113 ISO, .392 BABIP, .390 wOBA, 147 wRC+
Latest Scouting Grades: Hit: 50 / Power: 45 / Run: 60 / Arm: 50 / Field: 55 / Overall: 50
MLB Comp: Jacob Wilson (2024 Grades: 70 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 50 / Overall: 55)
Carson Benge wasn’t the only Mets prospect to fly through three minor league levels this season….Ewing just happened to post an OPS+ over 130 everywhere he went.
Ewing has been receiving praise since the moment he suited up in the orange and blue. A compensatory fourth-round draft pick in 2023 (received, funnily enough, as a result of the departure of Jacob deGrom), the course of Ewing’s development last season closely followed that of Reimer’s, with maybe even steeper odds attached at his journey’s outset.
When initially drafted, Ewing graded out far lower than his current projections. Seen as a ‘project’ with a ‘light’ arm that was destined for utility duties, Ewing’s development in his second year of action has significantly raised his initial ceiling.
Yet despite all the toolsy upside that Ewing’s already put on display, he has one particular skill (aside from his ability to make near-constant contact) that has established itself as a cornerstone to his overall game: base stealing.
(Hmm…there seems to be a theme developing down on the farm…)
Yay! Another chart!
As you can see, what Reimer lacks in traditional base-stealing speed can be found in the legs of Ewing. Granted, Reimer’s stolen base total quadrupled from all of three in 2024 to 15 across High-A and Double-A, and he was only caught three times, so there could be another tool developing before our eyes…but Ewing stole 70 across Single-A, High-A, and Double-A.
(I guess you could say there’s…levels to this.)
Though slightly undersized, Ewing has already proven a threat on both sides of the ball, and his defensive development is showcasing a comfort in center field that scouts think will complement the likes of Benge manning a full-time corner position. (That means Nimmo and/or Soto are likely destined for perma-DH duties eventually, but I think that’s a reality we all foresaw anyway.)
Whether he pops in for a few games in September 2026 or breaks camp in April 2027, I don’t doubt Ewing will also be in Queens sooner than later.
C Chris Suero (No. 15 prospect, Double-A BNG)
2025 MiLB Totals: 115 G, 475 PA, .233/.379/.407, 88 H, 16 HR, 16 2B, 1 3B, 78 R, 68 RBI, 35 SB, 29.3%-14.7% K-BB%, .175 ISO, .316 BABIP, .375 wOBA, 141 wRC+
Latest Scouting Grades: Hit: 40 / Power: 50 / Run: 60 / Arm: 50 / Field: 50 / Overall: 45
MLB Comp: Daulton Varsho (2019 Grades: 55 / 50 / 55 / 45 / 50 / Overall: 55)
If you follow me on Bluesky, you know I’m a big fan of this dude:
His Arizona Fall League debut has only kicked my hype machine into overdrive. In seven games, Suero is hitting .276/.344/.621 with three homers and four stolen bases. That .965 OPS is second-best in the AFL, and though the sample size is limited so far, the trends compared to his season line are certainly encouraging.
Initially, I was going to wait to rant about this guy for my ‘Mets Catching Future’ preview (more on that soon), but I just couldn’t help myself.
Just as Reimer and Ewing have incorporated base stealing into their offensive profiles, Suero’s stat line saw a major uptick in swipes as well:
Suero’s 35 steals last season reflected a near-doubling of his 2024 output (20), which itself was a major explosion from the seven he tallied across his 2022-2023 rookie ball campaigns. When you pair that with steady, year-over-year offensive improvements and legitimate defensive flexibility in the outfield, I don’t think the growing buzz is at all misplaced.
(Seriously, when’s the last time this franchise had a catcher who could hit for power, steal bases, and play the outfield? Have they ever?)
Now, unlike Reimer and Ewing, Suero’s raw hit tool still needs a bit of work. His 139 strikeouts ranked second-most in his group; his 29.3% K-rate was top of the class. He likes to swing, and he swings hard — his tendency to swing over fastballs is documented. He also hits the ball on the ground a lot: Suero had the worst line-drive rate among his class, alongside the second-most severe tendency to hit pull-side (55%). That pull power is great if you’re keeping the ball up, but hitting it on the ground to the same spot repeatedly can turn an otherwise dangerous hitter into a predictable one very quickly.
Still, Suero’s ~15% walk rate and 70 walks both ranked seventh in his group, and his HR/FB ratio ranked sixth, so the untapped power and plate discipline tools are clearly there. If he can learn to keep the ball in the air and start spreading it around the field a bit, I have no doubt his already-solid .317 BABIP will skyrocket.
All told, Suero is an incredibly promising prospect with excellent defensive skills to back up a developing bat and quietly freakish athletic tools. Looking at the numbers, he already seems to be the most complete catching prospect in the Mets’ system. It feels like we’ve barely started to scratch the surface with this guy, and I don’t doubt he’ll be sharing the MLB spotlight with Alvy before we know it.
Ok: when can we realistically expect to see these guys?
I won’t go so far as to say that we should be watching for debuts from all three of these guys in 2026 — I think that’s highly unlikely given the current depth chart. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see all three of them reach Syracuse relatively quickly; honestly, I wouldn’t even be shocked by a late-season Reimer call-up, should there still be lingering questions at the hot corner.
As for Ewing, he seems to be bound for a McNeil-type utility role at the big league level, with an increasing emphasis on outfield work; should the Mets trade Jeff this winter, Ewing’s MLB timeline will shorten significantly, especially if he keeps hitting the way he did in 2025. Suero might see action in 2026 as an emergency backup depending on what the team does with Torrens and Senger (and with Parada finally in Syracuse), but his big league promotion will also largely be determined by the blockage ahead of him, which itself won’t crystallize ‘til spring.
In Part 2, I’ll be talking about why I’m particularly high on righty Will Watson and lefties Jonathan Santucci and Zach Thornton.
"Great Work Buskirk" is the nickname! Only used "incredible" once, which puts you in the 97th percentile of sportswriters. Seriously, very enjoyable in-depth piece.
This makes me excited for the future