November is a month of roster tinkering for major league teams. Internal decisions are the biggest adjustments made in anticipation of the early December Winter Meetings when the Hot Stove fully heats up. Like everyone else, the New York Mets will be busy this month looking high and low on their depth chart to figure out who they do or don’t have room for moving forward.
One aspect of this is the Rule 5 Draft. Taking place as a part of the MLB Winter Meetings, it’s a sometimes overlooked yet important event. Players in the minor leagues who have accrued enough service time without being placed on a 40-man roster become eligible for a special draft which comes with risks to any team who selects someone. Players taken in the Rule 5 Draft must remain on a club’s 26-man roster all year or be offered back to the club they were originally taken from.
Each year comes a new class but also some returning prospects who’ll join the pool of available players. These three Mets prospects will be open for the public to snag unless the Mets add them to the 40-man roster first. What about a trade? It’s another way to make sure they don’t lose them for nothing at all.
1) Luke Ritter
Will the Mets clear a 40-man roster spot for Luke Ritter? Don’t bet on it. Another excellent offensive season in the minors, this time all in Triple-A, had some fans eager to see what he could do at the major league level. The issues with Ritter are obvious. Already 27 and mostly just a first baseman these days, there is no real opportunity for him to get much playing time on the Mets.
Ritter posted some dazzling power numbers over the last two seasons. He hit 27 home runs in 2023. He had another 26 this past season to go along with 25 doubles. He has steadily been increasing his batting average. He hit a career-high .257 this past year and walked 73 times in 567 trips to the plate.
The holes in Ritter’s game are clear, too. He struck out 174 times. Against major league pitching, he’d easily go down 200+.
The Mets didn’t protect Ritter from the Rule 5 Draft last year. No one took him. Would things change this season when he accomplished more? Why wouldn’t a rebuilding organization consider him even in a part-time role off the bench? Any sort of trade involving Ritter would likely be a minor one, perhaps swapping him for a lottery ticket prospect or a player in someone else’s system in a similar predicament.
2) Dom Hamel
The trajectory Dom Hamel was on made it so the 2025 season would have been one where he could have competed for an Opening Day roster spot if he hadn’t already made it there. A third round draft pick back in 2021, he has put together some solid minor league seasons. His best was in 2022 when he went 10-3 with a 3.25 ERA at two different Single-A stops.
It was a whole different story in 2024. Hamel made 27 starts in Syracuse and got hit over the head way too often. A 5-9 record and 6.79 ERA, he was one of several Mets pitching prospects who hit a wall in Upstate New York. Serving up 23 home runs (he has only 40 total in his professional career) helped make this one of the worst imaginable seasons. His walks ticked up to 5.6 per 9 and his strikeouts fell to only one per inning.
This isn’t the end of his professional career. However, Hamel turns 26 in March. There is only so long the Mets can painstakingly wait for him to become the stud pitcher he has looked capable of becoming.
Unlike Ritter, Hamel is more likely to get picked up in the Rule 5 Draft if eligible. The Mets will either have to add him despite coming off of a bad year or look to swap him in a trade. He’ll have value. So will our third prospect on this list.
3) Mike Vasil
Hamel was drafted by the Mets with hype. Mike Vasil had to earn it. Unfortunately, he ran into the same brick wall as Hamel in Triple-A. The difference for him is there is a much larger sample at the Triple-A level to start to question him.
Vasil was 4-4 with a 5.30 ERA in 16 starts for Syracuse in 2023. This past season his journey continued one level below the majors with even worse numbers. Vasil was 8-10 with a 6.04 ERA in 27 starts plus a pair of relief appearances.
Home runs ate him up. He surrendered them at a rate of 1.6 per 9. Walk numbers weren’t atrocious at 3.5 per 9 but his strikeout total of 7.3 per 9 left a lot to be desired. This was a guy who had routinely been over a K per 9.
He uncharacteristically hit 14 batters, too. He hit 6 coming into the year. This was meant to be a season where Vasil might contend for big league innings. Unfortunately, inconsistency kept him in the minors. He’s getting passed on the minor league depth chart in favor of others. A year younger than Hamel favors him slightly. However, the Mets 40-man roster begins to overflow the more players like those two they have on it. Alex Ramirez was the only prospect the Mets felt the need to protect in last year’s Rule 5 Draft. How will they approach it this December?
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