Mets' 2024 Draft standouts in Spring Breakout spotlight

This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- It’s a unique time for the Mets’ player development system, with so many of their most highly regarded prospects in the upper Minors. That sort of thing doesn’t happen every year.

Given their pedigree, many of those prospects have already become household names for clued-in fans. Jett Williams and Ryan Clifford have seen plenty of action in Grapefruit League games, for example.

Drew Gilbert is also in Major League camp, where the Mets are taking him along slowly following a hamstring injury that sidelined him for much of 2024. He’s a name brand regardless. Brandon Sproat is here as well, lighting up radar guns early in spring. Blade Tidwell recently threw an immaculate inning.

While a few of those older players will take part in Spring Breakout, Major League Baseball’s annual mid-spring prospect showcase, much of the March 16 intrigue will revolve around less familiar prospects. Specifically, a large group of 2024 Draft picks is set to take part in this year’s event.

• Here's the Mets' Spring Breakout roster

One of them, outfielder Carson Benge, is a first-round pick with a mop of red hair and thunder in his bat. Benge was a two-way player in college, but he’s focusing on the outfield now. The Mets believe he can become an elite offensive producer at the highest level.

Another, Jonathan Santucci, was one of the top left-handed pitchers available in the Draft. Though Santucci has yet to make his professional debut, he’ll play in front of a national audience during Spring Breakout.

Still another 2024 draftee, 19-year-old Trey Snyder, is a shortstop whom the Mets paid nearly $1 million over slot recommendations to sign out of the fifth round. While Snyder remains a long way from the Majors, his ceiling is as high as anyone the organization selected in last year’s Draft.

All told, six of the Mets’ top eight picks from a year ago are slated to appear in Spring Breakout.

Now in its second year, Spring Breakout is unlike the All-Star weekend Futures Game, which tends to include only a prospect or two from each organization. This month, entire teams of prospects will compete against each other, shedding light on the farm system as a whole -- not just the pipeline’s most elite players.

Last year, Spring Breakout offered fans their first real looks at Sproat, Clifford, Nolan McLean and others. This year, it promises to do the same for an even younger generation of prospects.

Many of those who appear on March 16 will eventually impact the big league club in significant ways. Some of them, we won’t see coming. Spring Breakout offers an early glimpse into that future.