Quartet Of Mets Prospects In New Rankings

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The New York Mets continue to reap the benefits of their midseason trades of pitcher Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.

The New York Mets had four players ranked in the new Top 100 prospects as released by MLB Pipeline on Friday and two of them were acquired in the deals for Verlander and Scherzer.

Infielder Luisangel Acuña came to the Mets in the Scherzer deal with the Texas Rangers, while Gilbert arrived in the Verlander Deal with the Houston Astros.

But none of them were the Mets’ top-ranked prospect. That was infielder Jett Williams, who was ranked No. 45. Gilbert was No. 53, Acuña was No. 66 and Clifford was No. 97.

Before the re-rank the Mets had five Top 100 prospects with Acuña (No. 38), Gilbert (No. 52), Williams (No. 78), infielder Ronny Mauricio (No. 87) and catcher Kevin Parada (No. 89).

Williams performed at a high level in 2023, as he batted .263/.425/.451/.876 with three affiliates, reaching as high as Double-A Binghamton. He also had 13 home runs and 55 RBI.

Gilbert batted a combined .289/.381/.487/.868 with affiliates in the Astros’ and Mets’ systems, with 18 home runs and 59 RBI. He was the Astros’ first-round pick out of Tennessee in 2022 and one of the most prepared college hitters to come out of that draft.

Acuña had a great offensive season with both the Rangers’ and the Mets’ organizations, finishing with a slash line of .294/.359/.410.769 with nine home runs and 63 RBI. Acuña will likely get the opportunity to start the season at Triple-A Syracuse.

Clifford was an 11th-round pick in 2022 by Houston and last season he batted .262/.374/.480/.854 with 24 home runs and 81 RBI. When he joined the Mets’ organization he was sent to High-A Brooklyn.

Rankings were created based on input from scouts, scouting directors and other talent evaluators. It also takes into account skill set, upside, proximity to the Majors and potential immediate impact to their teams.

The Top 100 includes players with 2024 rookie status, which includes players that debuted in 2023 that don’t have the service time (45 days on the active roster), at-bats (130) or innings pitched (50) to graduate.