Major League Baseball is known to be a long and more rigorous sports season in comparison to the other main sports to watch. 162 games is months of consistent playing time and if your team makes it to the playoffs that’s another 20+ games that you need to be at your best for. To maintain high level success for a full 162 season you need to combat a full strength lineup to cover up any holes that may pop up over the season. In order to be in the hunt for a playoff team you need all your resources available. It’s the security your team needs with a strong farm system used for trades or call ups that is the end all be all for how your season is defined. Most teams know when it is the time to make the call ups and bring up your most valuable prospects.

Though it isn’t always a hit, prospects can provide fundamental pop to the team, fixing up any holes that were apparent years prior. It’s not like the other core sports, prospects take years to develop and learn to be a major league caliber player. But those that prove the talent early in their minor league career can prove to be an essential part of a contending team. Though majority of minor leaguers struggle once they get called up, but in every average minor leaguer comes a superstar phenom awaiting their journey to the majors.

Teams who try to click on all cylinders will do anything it takes to do what they can to have a winning ball club on the field, and sometimes its making risky decisions that sometimes pay off big time. Look at the Mets in 1984, they had a superstar pitcher in Dwight Gooden who rode a combined 2.55 ERA and a breakout minor league campaign in 1983 that had him go 19-4, with a 2.50 ERA and 300 strikeouts! The front office pushed hard to have him start early in his career and look how it paid off; a rookie of the year, CY young, triple crown and World Series in a three year span!

This type of method acting has known to pay off big time in big situations, all clubs know when it’s the right time to pull the lever and call up the big guns, these are the type of moves that are truly undefined by major signings, a prospect gives the game more youthful energy and excitement. The Orioles were playing below .500 ball for many years until the call up of Adley Rutschman in 2022 that completely changed the dynamic of the team. The team rode to a 83-79 record that had them in contention for the final AL wildcard spot for the majority of the summer. Though they lost out to the Mariners, this just proves young talent is the essential key to a winning ball club that not all major signings can replicate. So why don’t teams pull the trigger sooner than later?

Either there is a blockage with prime veteran talent taking over the position causing teams to hold back from beginning their minor leaguers service team, or they are manipulating service time so the players can come up during their championship window or they’re the Mets. The Mets know to notably make unwise decisions when it comes to their roster spots, usually valuing the lower risk option which doesn’t always entail bringing up their youth to fill the gap. The Mets have slowly worked to fix the mistakes made by the ‘Wilpon Era’ that includes replenishing the farm system while signing smaller term contracts to fill the gap for their minor league talent, but these players are producing faster than time will tell for these veterans which gives the front office some tricky decisions to make soon.

Brett Baty- the Mets number two prospect and number 21 overall has been raking all throughout the minor league system, already in 3 games Baty has accumulated 8 RBIs, 4 HRs, an OPS of 1.257 and .BA over .350. It’s a small sample size but Baty has over 600 PA in the minors and has done more than enough to show the Mets it’s time to let the kids play! He went 4-4, with a HR, 2B, BB and a grand slam in yesterday’s game 4/01, proving to be a quintessential staple of the Mets lineup for years to come. It’s an abrupt measurement of service time abuse that this front office is doing, and many other clubs are doing the same.

Another big time talent knocking on the door is Francisco Alvarez, who already looks like an established big league hitter and the next prototype of Mike Piazza. He is the Mets number prospect and the number one overall prospect in all of baseball, so his talent is through the roof. At just 21, combining his two best minor league seasons (A+ to AAA+) Alvarez has accumulated 51 hrs 400 PA, 100 hits a season and 74 RBIs with an. OPS over .900. Him and Baty are going to provide power in the middle of the lineup the Mets haven’t felt win years.

With new talent with Alvarez and Baty approaching and cementing themselves as regulars in the lineup and other youngsters coming up the Mets enter a new era like no other. It’s time to reshape this team and let the Kids Play! The Mets are rewriting the ‘LOL Misery Mets’ narrative that has taken the forefront of their franchise ever since conceivement. The Mets have won 101 games last year the most in franchise history behind the 1986 miracle Mets team. No more shame of being a Mets fan anymore, rep the blue and orange nation, it’s time for us to shake up the league and show we aren’t leaving anytime soon. Its time for victory, its time for redemption, its time to let the kids play!