The All Star Break is here and one of the more underrated aspects of the week is the Futures Game, which showcases some of the best young talent that Major League Baseball has to offer. The league does the event a disservice by scheduling it in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday, when the Futures Game has to compete with regular season contests, but it does still offer a spotlight for some of the brightest young talent in the sport. Right-hander Brandon Sproat was the Mets' representative in Arlington and is the focus of this week's edition of Minor League Mondays.
We last talked about Sproat in this space in May, shortly after he was promoted to AA Binghamton. Things have gone very well for Sproat since then as he has dominated the Eastern League, going 4-0 with a 2.05 ERA in his first eight AA starts, striking out 52 batters in 48.1 innings pitched while holding opponents to a .182 batting average against him.
Sproat pitched the third inning for the National League and looked very impressive over his frame of work. The American League failed to generate any runs against Sproat, who tossed a scoreless inning and touched 99 miles per hour on the radar gun. Check out some highlights of his work below courtesy of the Mets Player Development Twitter (X) account.
The strong results for Sproat have led to more hype for him in league circles and it wouldn't be shocking to see him bumped up to AAA Syracuse in the near future. While he was at the Futures Game, SNY asked Sproat if he would be willing to pitch in the bullpen if the big club wanted him to help out down the stretch. As you can hear below, courtesy of SNY's Twitter (X) account, Sproat is more than willing to pitch out of the bullpen if it gets him to the major leagues faster.
With the Mets in a playoff position at the All Star Break, the focus of David Stearns' deadline activity looks like an effort to fortify the bullpen, which is by far the club's weakest unit. While external additions will certainly come before the July 30th deadline, another way the Mets can fortify their bullpen is using some of their starting pitching surplus at the upper levels of the minors as relievers for the stretch run.
Manager Carlos Mendoza indicated after Saturday's win over the Colorado Rockies that Jose Butto, who began the year as a starter, should remain as a bullpen option in the second half. Tylor Megill, who began this year as a starter but has been a reliever in the past, could also be a relief option while youngsters like Sproat, Mike Vasil and Blade Tidwell could also be used in that capacity if they demonstrate the potential to get big league hitters out over the next few months.
The idea of getting a future starting pitcher experience in the big leagues as a reliever has been done before, with two notable examples being (trigger warning for Mets fans) Adam Wainwright's 2006 work in relief with the St. Louis Cardinals and David Price's 2008 debut in Tampa Bay's bullpen when the Rays went to the World Series. The relief stints helped limit the innings for those pitchers in that season, helped find a way for the team to win and gave them confidence to become long-term starters at the big league level.
The Mets' recent decision to designate Joey Lucchesi for assignment may also tip their hand to their strategy as the DFA, which removes Lucchesi from the 40-man roster, could end up with him being released entirely. Lucchesi was in the AAA rotation, which could open a spot for a Sproat promotion if Lucchesi moves on.
If Sproat is promoted, it would likely be as a starter at first while the Mets see how their additions at the deadline work out in the bullpen. It would be surprising to see Sproat promoted before rosters expand in September but he is a potential weapon that could prove very valuable in a tight pennant race for a Wild Card spot. One of the biggest positives for the Mets' minor league system this season is Sproat's development, which may reach Queens much earlier than initially anticipated.
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