We’re reaching the end of the minor league baseball season, but there’s always a good reason to talk about the Mets farm system. Even as the big league Mets concentrate on their September call-ups, the stars of tomorrow are check their final stats or gearing up for minor league playoff battles. Let’s take a look at what happened in the New York Mets farm system this week.
Signings and Roster Moves
9/7: The Mets activated 1B Lucas Duda from the 15-day disabled list.
9/8: The Mets recalled RHP Logan Verrett from Triple-A Las Vegas
– The Mets recalled C Johnny Monell from Triple-A Las Vegas
– The Mets recalled 2B Dilson Herrara from Triple-A Las Vegas
– The Mets recalled CF Darrell Ceciliani from Triple-A Las Vegas, too, but he immediately went on the 60-day DL for the hamstring sprain in his left leg.
– The Mets selected Tim Stauffer’s contract from Triple-A Las Vegas.
Around the Minors
The regular seasons are ending across all of minor league baseball, and for some Mets minor league affiliates, it’s the end of the line. Triple-A Las Vegas played themselves out of the playoffs in the final weeks of the season, and they played their final game last Monday. Appropriately, they lost it. Single-A (short season) Brooklyn ended their season by getting swept by their cross-town rivals, the Staten Island Yankees. The Mets rookie affiliate in Kingsport also bowed out after the regular season, and also ended their season with a loss. St. Lucie’s Florida League Mets kept up the trend, losing their final game to Bradenton and finishing outside of the playoff picture. Their final loss cost them their chance at .500 – they finished the season 33-35.
Elsewhere on the Mets farm, however, hope lived on – however briefly. After failing to take the division from the Reading Fightin Phils, the Binghamton Mets made the playoffs as a Wild Card and were swept in three games by those very same Fightin Phils. Their season ended for good on Saturday with a 2-4 loss.
The Savannah Sand Gnats, a Mets Single-A affiliate, also made the playoffs. They lost the first game in the three-game series with the Asheville Tourists before winning the second. They lost a heartbreaker in the rubber match, falling 2-1 and ending their season. The Sand Gnats will relocate to Columbia, South Carolina for next season, where they’ll be known as the Fireflies. We’ll miss you, Sand Gnats.
Other News
The big-league Mets are looking pretty good these days. As of this writing, they lead the Nationals by 9.5 games in the National League east and have a magic number of 11. If, as is expected, the Mets clinch a playoff berth, MLB rules will force them to make some roster transactions.
The team’s last big run of moves came in September, when MLB teams’ active rosters are expanded to include all 40 players on their major league rosters. The active rosters are cut down again, however, for the postseason. As with most of the regular season, the number of players on the active roster will be 25. We expect plenty of those players to be guys you’ve seen in this column. Steven Matz should be in the postseason rotation, and Michael Conforto seems like he’s done enough to stick around. It will be interesting to see how the Mets manage their bullpen, especially given Matt Harvey’s apparent postseason limits.
