PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Nolan McLean started throwing more sinkers as a pro and developed into the top pitching prospect in baseball. Jonah Tong altered the Vulcan grip location of his changeup and won MiLB Pitching Prospect of the Year honors in 2025. Brandon Sproat leaned more on his own sinker in the Majors and became a key part in an offseason blockbuster trade with the Brewers.
The Mets have become one of the standard-bearers for Minor League pitching development across baseball because of their knowledge of their own pitchers and what pitch types can work for their bodies, release angles and overall styles.
“I think you're seeing a large number of really good starters that throw a four-seam, a two-seam and a cutter, so three variations of a fastball,” said senior vice president of player development Andy Green. “You're also seeing a sweeper, a slider and a curveball with some guys as well. There's a lot that have really done a nice job adding to the mix. The smarter the game gets, the better we are at discerning which guy could do which thing.”
Wenninger is the most likely of the group to push for Queens in the first half of 2026. The 24-year-old right-hander ranked third in Double-A with 142 strikeouts over 135 2/3 innings with Binghamton last season, on the strength of his 93-96 mph fastball and plus splitter. The Mets are hopeful that a mid-80s sweeping curveball, folded in more late in ‘25, could help unlock another gear in him.
Elsewhere, Santucci, who had a 2.52 ERA over 10 Double-A starts in his first full season, continues to hone a changeup that would round out an arsenal heavy on his fastball and slider. And Watson -- already equipped with a four-seamer, sinker, cutter, slider and changeup -- has flirted with adding his own curve ahead of his age-23 season.
COMPLETE METS PROSPECT COVERAGE
This all comes with the caveat of that this is being worked on in Spring Training, and how each starter’s pitch mix lands in season could still be different.
“I don't know that we ultimately see these types of pitches as necessary for them to be successful in the big leagues; it just makes it easier to be successful if you have more options,” Green said. “There’s also the choice of, from a training economy perspective, of how much time you can devote to these pitches. There are only so many bullets in the gun, so to speak, that you can fire every day. Our pitching group does a really nice job making decisions on what guys should be able to add, and we're largely successful. But sometimes you pull back from these and just let guys go with the strings they already have.”
Of the four mentioned above, Wenninger is the only one expected to open in Triple-A Syracuse this spring. However, injuries to Robert Stock (thoracic outlet syndrome) and Justin Hagenman (rib fracture) have dented the organization’s depth at the top of the Minor Leagues. So even if Santucci, Watson and Thornton (owner of the best control in the farm system) open in Binghamton, there could be opportunities for them to move up quickly if they replicate their results from a year ago.
For all the pitch design work and spring preparation, the Mets’ pitching group, led by vice president of pitching Eric Jagers, understands the upper Minors come with their own challenges. They’ve climbed those mountains before with their top pitchers, and they’re prepared, perhaps more than ever, to do it with the next group up.
“Nolan didn't exactly tear up Double-A in his first stint,” Green said. “Brandon kind of scuffled at the Triple-A level. Jonah breezed through every level, but at some point in time, you hit some level of struggle. We just try to make that serve our purpose, to make them more resilient and to realize that they've come back from everything in their life to get to where they are right now.”
After a breakout 2025 in which he hit .315 and stole 70 bases across Single-A, High-A and Double-A, Ewing jumped into the Top 100 rankings for the first time this offseason and played up to that reputation before being reassigned to Minor League camp on Sunday. He went 8-for-21 (.381) with four steals in 10 games, spraying the ball to all fields and letting his plus-plus wheels do plenty of the talking. His work in center field caught attention too, and though he’s likely to open his age-21 season back in Binghamton, his high-contact, high-motor play could make him a quick fan favorite when he reaches Citi Field.
“I think he just played the game fearlessly while he was in big league camp,” Green said, “and that's what he has to do to be successful for the long term.”
Camp standout II: SS Elian Peña (Mets No. 9)
On the backfields, Peña -- a $5 million signing in January 2025 -- was an industry enigma after opening his time in the Dominican Summer League on an 0-for-26 stretch and then hitting .342/.463/.618 in 46 games the rest of the way. The left-handed-hitting shortstop has looked more like the latter performer in his first stateside spring. In an intrasquad game Sunday, he went 3-for-4 with two exit velocities above 100 mph, including a 103 mph shot right back up the middle past the pitcher.
Only 18 for the entire Minor League season, Peña could be a player the Mets get aggressive with and assign to Single-A St. Lucie earlier this season than many of his peers.
“He's had a phenomenal spring,” Green said. “He shows up to work every day, is present for his work and loves the challenge that the game presents every day. He’s hungry to move quickly and hungry to prove that our scouts saw something really special in him when they identified him at a young age in the D.R. I really applaud his general resilience as a competitor.”
For all the talk of the next tier of Mets pitching prospects, one of the club’s Top 100 prospects still isn’t done honing his pitch mix.
Tong dominated the upper Minors with his fastball-changeup combo, but was humbled with a 7.71 ERA in five MLB starts because of the heavy reliance on those offerings. He’s focused on a low-90s cutter to give him something quality moving glove side, and of the 50 pitches he threw in Grapefruit League play, 18 of them (36 percent) were cutters.
Tong had his first backfields outing Sunday since being optioned and tossed five scoreless innings against fellow Mets Minor Leaguers. He sat 94-95 mph in that outing with 18-20 inches of ride on his trademark four-seamer, while continuing to toy with the new pitch in hopes of it sticking for the start of International League play next week.
“The cutter is something that gives him a chance to get away from just the straight north-south attack that he lived with for the majority of the time last year,” Green said. “So [pitching coach] Justin Willard at the big league level and Eric Jagers, those guys partnered together in helping him add that, and other coaches have been involved as well. It’s been a welcome addition for him, and something we feel will serve him well.”