As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
The New York Mets missed the postseason on the final day of the season, but for our purposes, this is a farm system that might have one of the best collections of talent at the top. The system is headlined by Nolan McLean who immediately upon arriving in the majors looked like the front-line starter the Mets need. After him is Carson Benge, who will almost assuredly factor in very quickly to the Mets in 2026, as he is one of the better hitters in the organization and can be trusted to play centerfield. Their draft, despite their first pick being at 38, looks to be encouraging, walking away with Mitch Voit and some interesting pitchers. The Mets under David Stearns have become an organization with a unified vision, and are now drafting and developing players whom they can optimize and use to fill out their roster or go out and trade for parts they don't have internally. This system may change over the offseason because there might be some big swings by David Stearns and Steve Cohen to try and get the Mets not only back to the postseason but in the best possible spot to bring home a World Series title.
About Our Top 20 Lists
Prospects Live, led by its evaluating team & Director of Scouting Rhys White, is proud to begin rolling out its annual offseason system reports. The team combines industry feedback, our live looks, film, and available data to compile each org. We believe this effort has enabled us to present you, the reader, with our best possible view of the prospects in the organization.
We have constructed this list using the Overall Future Potential (OFP) scale. There is no perfect equation for ranking prospects or assigning value to them, but we believe this method is the best possible approach. Every prospect on this list has been graded based on the tried and true 20-80 scouting scale. An 80 is the highest tool and OFP grade on the scale, reserved for MVP-caliber players or tools. Conversely, a 20 is reserved for non-prospects (NPs). A 50 OFP falls in the middle, indicating our evaluators deem this player a future average major league player. Below the 50 OFP tier are the 45s and 40s, comprising a large majority of players on each list. These are specific-role players, such as platoon hitters, utility players, or low-leverage relievers. Above the 50 OFP tier are the 55s and 60s. A 55 represents a future above-average player, and a 60 OFP designation is reserved for future All-Star caliber players.
In addition to the tool grades and OFP, we will also include a 'Risk' associated with each prospect. We use this to better communicate to you, the reader, whether a grade is more aggressive or conservative in nature. The evaluation team has worked hard to apply both the grades and risk components to better illustrate how each individual prospect stacks up in their respective system and in the baseball ecosystem.
There might be no prospect who raised his stock as much as Nolan McLean over the past two years. Going from a two-way player when he entered pro ball to one of the game's premier young pitchers, McLean looks the part of a potential front-of-the-rotation starter. He is built like an NFL quarterback and has the frame that would suggest he could handle a full season of starts. He hides the ball well during his windup and he gets decent enough extension down the mound. Where everything plays up is his lower release point. This release height allows his fastballs to play up, especially when spotted up in the zone. He messes around with a sinker and a four-seamer. The sinker is utilized more, and it plays well all over the zone, thanks to its 28 inches of vertical break. The four-seamer is fine; it gets about 13 inches of induced vertical break from a 5-foot-3-inch release height. He uses the four-seamer up, where the sinker has more viability all over the zone. The headliner of the arsenal is one of the game's best curveballs, which gets a jaw-dropping 57 inches of vertical drop. This is the main put-away pitch for McLean. He will mix in a sweeper with 16 inches of horizontal break. That plays well off the curveball and is a pitch he has shown a propensity to front-door to right-handed batters to get a strike with the breaking ball. The changeup has shown flashes and may be the final key for him to unlock another quality offering. There is a solid cutter here that is almost exclusively used against left-handed batters. The Mets have worked wonders with McLean as not only has the repertoire expanded but the command has taken a step forward since joining the Mets organization. All things point to McLean being a really good number two starter, or even the ace of a staff, depending on who else is in the rotation with him. McLean embodies the current pitching meta—multiple fastballs and multiple breaking balls—and he can attack batters in a variety of ways. He ended the season with the big-league squad, and if the Mets were to get to the postseason, he looked like he was going to headline the playoff rotation. All signs point to the Mets having an anchor of their rotation for the foreseeable future in their top prospect, and to think he was once a hitting prospect with pretty serious whiff issues. - Rhys White
Dynasty player of 10+ years. Helping you find the building blocks of your championship rosters as a co-host on the Dynasty Baseball Pickups podcast since mid-season 2023, joined Prospects Live at the start of 2024.
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
Director of Dynasty Content - Canadian born and raised, moved to Arkansas with my wife and two sons Ezra and Ari. Followed and played baseball my whole life; played dynasty for 25+ years.
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
Director of Dynasty Content - Canadian born and raised, moved to Arkansas with my wife and two sons Ezra and Ari. Followed and played baseball my whole life; played dynasty for 25+ years.
