Montero, Syndergaard taking part in Futures Game
CHICAGO -- Two years ago, Matt Harvey gave the Mets a glimpse of things to come at the Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game, retiring the only batter he faced in Phoenix. Last year, it was Zack Wheeler's turn, setting down two men in the exhibition in Kansas City.
Now that those two are anchors of the Mets' rotation, the team will look even further into the future at this year's event, which will feature top pitching prospects Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard, on July 14. Montero, from the Dominican Republic, will pitch for the World Team, while Syndergaard plays for the U.S. squad.
The 15th annual Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game takes place at 2 p.m. ET on All-Star Sunday at Citi Field in New York and can be seen live on MLB.com, ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD and followed live on MLB.com's Gameday. In addition, XM Radio will broadcast play-by-play coverage of the event live on MLB Network Radio XM 89. MLB.com will also provide complete coverage before, during and after the game. Fans can stay updated by following @MLBFutures on Twitter and can send/receive tweets to/from the U.S. and World Team dugouts during the game by tagging tweets with the hashtags #USDugout and #WorldDugout.
Also, for the first time, fans determined the final player on the U.S. and World Team rosters by casting their votes in the All-Star Sunday Futures Finalists ballot. There were five candidates for each team, with voting ending on Sunday at 11:59 p.m.
Outfielder Brandon Nimmo, the Mets No. 4 prospect, was been named one of the five Futures Finalists for the U.S. team.
The Mets picked Nimmo, a native of Wyoming, with the 13th overall selection in the 2011 Draft. He got off to a hot start this season at Class A Savannah, where he is making his full-season debut this season. But a left hand contusion forced him to make a trip to the disabled list and cooled him off at the plate. Nimmo, 20, is hitting .280 with a .381 on-base percentage.
Montero, the Mets' No. 8 prospect according to MLB.com, would likely sit a bit higher than that had his 2013 statistics been taken into account. The right-hander has been dynamite since a promotion to hitter-friendly Triple-A Las Vegas, striking out 19 batters in 17 innings with three walks and a 3.18 ERA. That has come after Montero posted a 2.43 ERA in 11 starts at Double-A Binghamton, whiffing 72 batters in 66 2/3 innings.
Though general manager Sandy Alderson recently indicated that Montero's innings limit this season should prevent him from reaching the big leagues, he is a good bet to compete for a rotation spot next spring. In the meantime, Mets fans will receive an early glimpse of him at the Futures Game.
Syndergaard, one of the key pieces the Mets received in last December's trade of R.A. Dickey, recently earned his own promotion to Binghamton after posting a 3.11 ERA in 12 starts at Class A St. Lucie. The Mets' No. 3 prospect, Syndergaard struck out seven over six innings in his first start at Double-A.
In addition to Harvey and Wheeler, Mets Futures Game alumni include David Wright, Jose Reyes and Wilmer Flores, a two-time participant who remains a top prospect in the organization.