PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- For many years, and across front office regimes, the Mets have had a commitment to getting high-ceiling talent on the international market. It’s been a strong relationship between the Latin American scouting and player development staffs: The scouts find the players, those running the farm system move them up the ladder and hopefully to New York.

They’ve never shied away from moving players quickly, either. Exhibit A has to be Amed Rosario, signed back in July 2012 and brought quickly to the United States for his pro debut in 2013 and to full-season ball in 2014 as an 18-year-old. That got him to the big leagues when he was 21 and he’s really coming into his own at the ripe old age of 24.

The Mets’ prospects amassing in Port St. Lucie show there’s a lot more where that came from. Three of the system’s top four prospects, all in the Top 100, came courtesy of international scouting efforts: Ronny Mauricio, Francisco Alvarez and Andres Gimenez.

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“I think Omar Minaya plays a big role in that,” said Mets farm director Jared Banner about the current special assistant to general manager Brodie Van Wegenen. “Previously, many years ago when he was general manager and now, again. He’s aggressive, looks for great athletes. He’s an unbelievable scout and he’s put together a great staff down there. Rafael Perez, who is the director of our Latin American operations, does a great job on both the scouting and player development side. By the time these guys get to us, they’re up here and they’re ready to go.”

And that means being able to give them aggressive assignments. Mauricio is coming off a very solid full-season debut at age 18. Alvarez signed in July 2018 and made his pro debut stateside in 2019 and could be ready for a full-season assignment. Gimenez is just about ready to knock on the big league door and he’s only 21.

“We try to let the players dictate what they’re ready for,” Banner said. “We always want to keep them challenged and pushing themselves to be better. We want to reward them when they show us they’re ready.”

Celebrating a Draft crop
Every Spring Training is an exciting time for a player development staff, as they get to bring in all of the previous June’s draftees to get them ready for their first full season. You can forgive Banner for being particularly excited to have the Class of 2019 in camp.

While the Mets didn’t have any extra picks early, it’s easy to make the argument they had as good a top three rounds as any team. They were able to get third baseman Brett Baty in the first round and another first-round talent in right-hander Josh Wolf in round two. Then they took a lot of people by surprise as being the team to swoop in and get righty Matt Allen, a top prep arm who had slid because of signability.

“I worked in amateur scouting for a long time and it’s hard to bring in that number of quality young players in one Draft,” Banner said. “I was over the moon when we acquired those three guys. A lot of the credit goes to [vice president of international and amateur scouting] Tommy Tanous, [scouting director] Marc Tramuta and Brodie as well. Brodie really wants us to focus on getting impact and I think we were able to do that with those first three picks.”

Camp standout
The Mets’ first-round pick in 2017, lefty David Peterson had a solid second full season in pro ball in 2019, with some bumps along the way in Double-A. He finished strongly and then went on to get some more work in the Arizona Fall League. That was an up-and-down experience, but it’s clear Peterson hit the offseason with an idea of what he needed to do to be ready for what could be his first callup to the big leagues.

“He’s in great shape,” Banner said of Peterson, who had given up one run on four hits while striking out five over his first four Grapefruit League innings. “I can tell he’s ready to make that jump to the next level. I’m really excited about him and what he might be able to do this year.

“He stayed durable, he stayed healthy last season. And now that he’s taken such amazing care of his body, it’s going to bring even more out. There’s some left in the tank there, I really believe that.”

Prospect we’ll be talking about in 2021
At the start of the 2017-18 international signing period, the Mets signed Ronny Mauricio for more than $2 million. Just over two months later they landed Junior Santos for $275,000 and as is the Mets way, they pushed him to the United States during his first pro summer in 2018 with excellent results. A move up to Kingsport in the Appalachian League was more uneven, especially in terms of his command, but the Mets aren’t any less bullish about the 6-foot-8 right-hander.

“We’ve always challenged him and he’s way ahead of the curve for his age,” Banner said. “He has all the potential in the world. He’s a physical monster, the ball comes out of his hand really well. We challenged him at the Kingsport level and he was three years younger than everyone else. He’s a guy who has a ton of upside and I can’t wait to get him on the mound and get him ready to go and challenge him more and more.”

Something to prove
They’re all at varying degrees of being back from Tommy John surgery, but a trio of Mets pitching prospects are healthy as Spring Training unfolds. All three, Thomas Szapucki, Jordan Humphreys and Franklyn Kilome, are on the Mets’ 40-man roster, but having them put their issues behind them almost is like the Mets made a trade to bring in a slew of pitching talent they haven’t had in a while. While all three were on the Mets’ Top 30 Prospects list in 2019, they’ve been a little forgotten since they collectively missed so many innings of development. Now it’s time for them to go out and remind people what they can do.

“They’re all healthy now; they’re all performing really well as they’re just getting back into the rhythm of things,” Banner said. “We expect big things from them this year, they were all once top prospects and we think they can be that again.”