SNY contributor Joe DeMayo answers fan questions in this edition of the Mets Minor League Mailbag…
From Patrick H on X: Will Ryan Clifford be ready to be the first baseman on the big league club if Pete Alonso opts out after this season? I don’t see Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as a viable option given the other big contracts the Mets have
Quickly on the Vlad front: we will see what comes of that situation next winter, but as SNY’s Andy Martino reported at the beginning of March, there are too many variables at play to know whether that could be a pursuit the Mets make.
If Alonso has the type of season that causes him to opt out, I don’t think we should rule out the Mets and Alonso continuing this marriage beyond 2025. The Mets like Alonso and Alonso likes being a Met. It will be important for Alonso to have a bounce back season, both for the 2025 Mets success as well as his next contract.
While I do have a 2026 major league ETA on Clifford, my No. 4 ranked prospect in the system who showed out at the spring breakout game with a 449 foot home run off of a lefty, I am unsure if that necessarily means Opening Day 2026.
Clifford will head back to Double-A Binghamton to start the 2025 season. He had success there last year as a 20/21-year-old, posting an .815 OPS with 18 home runs in 99 games.
Clifford possesses plus power and overall plate discipline. He still needs some approach refinement — he can stand to be more aggressive early in counts as he will at times let good pitches to hit go by to work the count. He also had a 29 percent strikeout rate at the Double-A level, and you’d like to see that number more in the low-20s.
If Clifford can take that next step in his development as a hitter, I can see him getting to Triple-A Syracuse some time in 2025, which ultimately puts him in the picture for 2026.
The Mets are going to need to infuse their big league roster with homegrown youth within the next year or two due to the way their roster is set up from a payroll perspective. Clifford could certainly be a part of that equation; I just think he would have to make it to Triple-A relatively early this season and have a run of success at that level for the Mets to consider him an Opening Day 2026 option.
What ultimately could be the most interesting thing to follow is how Clifford’s presence could impact their potential pursuit of a 10-plus year deal with Guerrero or a potential lengthier re-commitment with Alonso.
From James on X: Does Jett Williams end up at second base or in center field long-term?
One of the strong suits of Williams is that he has the versatility to play all three up-the-middle positions. Mets President of baseball operations David Stearns confirmed in an in-game interview with SNY during Sunday’s game against the Marlins that Williams will start the season with Double-A Binghamton and continue to play shortstop, second base, and center field.
Right now, Williams — my No. 2 prospect in the system — is behind quite a few players on the depth chart simply due to proximity to the big leagues, and the Mets need to figure out what they have in some other pieces first.
That can cause a trickle effect, as right now they have Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuña, and Ronny Mauricio as young factors behind the incumbent Jeff McNeil at second base. Center field will be primarily manned by Jose Siri and Tyrone Taylor to start the 2025 season, but a healthy Drew Gilbert could impact that situation as well this summer.
While I think Williams may be more natural in the dirt at either shortstop or second base, I liked what I saw out of him in center field when he got the opportunities (he has played just 33 career professional games in center field).
He is a plus athlete with the range to cover gap to gap, but he simply needs more reps. At times his reads are just a tick late and he’s been making up for it with his speed, but some plays have ended up more difficult than they needed to be. That is something that can be improved with more repetition of tracking the ball off the bat.
Williams has a chance to be a dynamic player who hits at or near the top of a batting order. He is the type of player that you eventually make a spot for, and I think his general versatility could be a weapon.
I am intrigued to see more of him in center field to determine how viable that will be at the next level, as that picture has a much cloudier future than second base does as of this writing. Though, as we say on The Mets Pod, these things always have a way of figuring themselves out.
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