Inside The Mets

Mets' Top Prospect Receives Prestigious Award After Extraordinary Outing

One can't-miss Mets prospect is having himself quite the week.

Grant Young

Mar 15, 2024; Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA; New York Mets pitcher Brandon Sproat (28) warms-up in the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals in the Spring Breakout game at Clover Park. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 15, 2024; Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA; New York Mets pitcher Brandon Sproat (28) warms-up in the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals in the Spring Breakout game at Clover Park. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports / Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports
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New York Mets top-tier pitching prospect Brandon Sproat has had a week to remember.

The 23-year-old righty made waves on Friday when he struck out 11 consecutive hitters during his start with the Mets' Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies.

He finished that outing with a career-best 13 total strikeouts while allowing just two hits in five innings. This performance lowered Sproat's ERA to 2.05 in the 2024 season, which includes 11 starts with Binghamton and 6 outings (5 starts) with the Mets' High-A Brooklyn team.

Friday's insane performance convinced the Mets' organization that it was time to promote Sproat to Triple-A Syracuse one day later.

And the good news didn't stop there for Sproat. It was announced on Monday that he was named the Minor League Baseball Pitcher of the Week.

Sproat's meteoric rise through the Mets' farm system is especially impressive, given that he was selected in the second-round of the 2023 MLB Draft and this is his first season playing professional baseball.

The former Florida Gator is the Mets' top pitching prospect and No. 5 prospect overall in their system. While he's currently projected to make his MLB debut in 2025, if Sproat can continue his dominance in Triple-A, he could receive another promotion once MLB rosters expand from 26 to 28 players in September.

Although Rumble Ponies pitching coach AJ Sager believes Sproat already has what it takes to perform for New York.

"He’s got the big league makeup,” Sager told Newsday. “Now he just needs the experience. Where he’s pitching isn’t as important to me right now as the fact that he’s staying healthy. This is his first full year in pro ball, so it’s all still relatively new to him, even though it doesn’t look like it. So wherever they decide to put him, I think he’s going to be fine.”

Regardless of when his Mets debut arrives, Sproat is giving New York fans a reason to look forward to the future.

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Grant Young

GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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