As prospects make their way up the ladder in a crowded and talented system, it’s often said “you have to break the door down” in order to stand out. Well, A.J. Ewing appears to have taken that to heart.
The Mets’ No. 3 prospect made his Triple-A Syracuse debut Tuesday night in the club’s 10-4 win over Lehigh Valley at NBT Bank Stadium. Ewing quickly introduced himself by drilling a 104.4 mph triple in his first at-bat, a frozen rope that rattled the wall in left-center. As center fielder Steward Berroa (Phillies) went to retrieve the ball, he crashed into the fence and it burst open on him.
Ewing used a 29.1 ft/sec sprint speed (a near-elite mark) to zoom around to third base in just 11.74 seconds. That’s faster than any triple by a Met during this regular season or last. The most recent member of the big league squad to go home-to-third so quickly was Luisangel Acuña (11.21) on Sept. 19, 2024.
By the end of the night, Ewing had amassed three knocks -- including a two-RBI double vs. lefty Andrew Walling in the eighth -- giving him seven multihit showings in 19 contests this season. He made relative mincemeat of Double-A pitching to open the year, slashing .349/.481/.571 with a 181 wRC+ while going 12-for-13 on the basepaths. His significant gains in walk rate (up to 21 percent entering the night) and isolated power (.222 prior to Tuesday) made it clear a new challenge was in store for the 21-year-old.
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Selected in 2023 with a fourth-round compensation pick the Mets received for losing Jacob deGrom to the Rangers in free agency, Ewing entered the system as a talented high school hitter. But he took his lumps, batting just .228 after a midseason promotion to Single-A St. Lucie in '24. The signs of extra-base impact were there, but he struck out 109 times, quelling his ability to impact the game on the basepaths with his 70-grade wheels.
“I didn’t know who I was as a professional hitter,” Ewing told MLB.com during camp in March. “I think it took the full season for me to figure that out. I give a lot of my success to that first full season and those struggles.”
Ewing, now MLB's No. 85 prospect, had a monster 2025 campaign in which he swiped 70 bags and hit .310 across three levels. It earned him an invite to big league camp this year, where he went 8-for-21 with four steals in 10 games, and maybe more importantly, impressed big league brass.
“I think he just played the game fearlessly,” Mets senior vice president of player development Andy Green said of Ewing’s time in the Grapefruit League, “and that's what he has to do to be successful for the long term.”
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A self-described “play with my hair on fire” type, Ewing is now bringing that fire to western New York. Doors, walls and Triple-A International League pitchers would all be best served to take notice as well.