New York Mets Top Prospect Gets Assignment For 2024
New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns is ready to move one of the organization’s top prospects up a rung going into 2024.
Stearns, during an appearance on “The Show” podcast with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the New York Post he said that outfielder Drew Gilbert would start the 2024 season at Triple-A Syracuse.
The news doesn’t rule out Gilbert playing his way into a Major League role sometime in 2024. But he’ll have to leap over an outfield room that looks set for Spring Training.
Right now, the Mets’ projected outfield looks like Harrison Bader, Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte, Tyrone Taylor and DJ Stewart.
Gilbert was part of the package the Mets received when they traded Justin Verlander to the Houston Astros. The other player was another outfielder Ryan Clifford, who is a Top 10 prospect in the Mets’ system.
When Gilbert joined the Mets in August, the Mets assigned him to Double-A Binghamton. With the Rumble Ponies he batted .325 with seven doubles, two triples, six homers, 21 RBI, and a .984 OPS. For the entire 2023 minor league season he batted .289 with 18 home runs and 59 RBI, which was his first full minor league season.
He played just 10 games in 2022 with the Astros’ organization where he batted .313 with two home runs and six RBI.
The Astros made him their first-round pick in 2022 out of Tennessee. He started in center field for the Volunteers and in 2022 he was named All-SEC after he batted .274 with 10 home runs, 62 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases.