The Rockaway Wave
Originally published August 11, 2023
The New York Mets sold at the trade deadline, shipping away a pair of future Hall-of-Fame starting pitchers and a handful of others for a nice group of minor-league talent.
The biggest names, Luisangel Acuña and Drew Gilbert, both went right to Double-A Binghamton. Others, like teenagers Miguel Vargas and Ronald Hernandez, went to rookie ball. Out of the 10 prospects the Mets acquired at the deadline (including the Eduardo Escobar trade), just one ended up in Brooklyn — Ryan Clifford.
Clifford, a 20-year-old first baseman and corner outfielder acquired by the Mets in the Justin Verlander trade, was an 11th-round pick by the Houston Astros in 2022. However, he was only an 11th-round pick because he had a college commitment to Vanderbilt. The Astros proceeded to give him a signing bonus of about $1.25 in order to lure him away from Vandy.
He crushed 25 games in Low-A to start 2023 putting up a .945 OPS, and then did the same in High-A with an OPS of .903 in 58 games. He hit 18 home runs between both leagues, 16 of which came in High-A, and then hit another home run in his very first at-bat with the Cyclones.
“I think Ryan Clifford, the power is something that’s really already playing, it’s 20-to-25 homer potential, could be even more if he continues to fill out a little bit,” Sam Dykstra, who is in charge of creating the Mets top-30 prospects list for MLB Pipeline, said. “He’s already at 6- foot-3, 200 [pounds], but as he learns to get that power to play, I think that’s gonna be interesting.”
Clifford isn’t the only new impact face in Brooklyn. Just one day before he was traded to the Mets, Jett Williams, and Jacob Reimer were both assigned to the Cyclones from Low-A St. Lucie.
Williams, a first-round pick by the Mets in the 2022 MLB draft, he was selected just three picks after now fellow Cyclone Kevin Parada. He had a productive 79 games in Low-A to start 2023, hitting .249/.422/.410 with six home runs and a .832 OPS while playing both shortstop and center field.
His plate discipline stands out, especially for someone who is just 19 years old.
“He doesn’t really expand the zone, he’s willing to take his walks,” Dykstra said. “You don’t see that with teenagers entering pro ball too much. They get a little jittery, they want to show off
what they can do, they get swing-happy. He hasn’t done that. Talking to Mets officials, they’re really impressed by his plate discipline.”
Reimer, also just 19 years old, was a 4th-round pick by the Mets in 2022. Through 75 games at Low-A hit .280/.412/.392 with six home runs and a .804 OPS.
“Talking to some Mets folks, they were just saying that this guy lives to hit,” Dykstra said. “He does a nice job of getting on base, similar to Jett Williams, without necessarily the major walk totals, but still a pretty solid OBP at St. Lucie. Still waiting for the power to come around. I think it’s definitely going to be better than Jett Williams, we had it coming out of the draft as above- average, I think he can still get to that.”
Over the past two weeks, the Cyclones have added Clifford, Williams and Reimer to a lineup that already includes other top-30 organization prospects like Parada, Alex Ramirez and Stanley Consuegra. The final month will be quite an interesting one to watch.
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