Mets quick to drop Brandon Sproat call-up talk . . . for the moment
Brandon Sproat of the Mets pitches during the third inning of the All-Star Futures Game at Globe Life Field on July 13 in Arlington, Texas. Credit: Getty Images/Richard Rodriguez
The fourth question David Stearns was asked on Friday about the possibility of calling up red-hot pitching prospect Brandon Sproat may have been one too many for the Mets’ congenial president of baseball operations.
“Right now, he’s a Triple-A player,” Stearns said. “At the point where he’s not a Triple-A player, I’ll be happy to sit up here and talk about him. For the moment, he’s a Triple-A player.”
OK.
Actually, Stearns already had talked about Sproat quite a bit in his once-a-homestand news conference. And the way the Mets had been playing — losers of five of six before Friday night’s 7-3 victory over woeful Miami — who doesn’t want to talk about a 23-year-old fireballer with a 100-mph fastball who ate up hitters in Single-A and Double-A and is one phone call away from the majors?
A Sproat call-up to help the Mets either in the bullpen or rotation is not out of the question, especially when rosters expand on Sept. 1.
First, though, Sproat has to make Triple-A hitters quiver, Stearns said. In two starts for Syracuse, Sproat has an 8.22 ERA. In 7 2⁄3 innings, he has allowed nine hits, seven earned runs and two home runs with five walks and six strikeouts.
That doesn’t scream major league-ready. Before his call-up to Syracuse, Sproat went a combined 6-2 with a 2.05 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 87 2⁄3 innings in 17 appearances (16 starts) at the lower levels in his first professional season.
In his final start for Double-A Binghamton, Sproat struck out 13 batters in five innings, including the last 11 hitters he faced. That’s what got tongues wagging about the chances of seeing Sproat sprout in Flushing in 2024.
“I think he’s had about as good a minor-league season as you can possibly have,” Stearns said. “I think he’s thrown more strikes. He’s rounded out his arsenal. He’s improved his changeup. He’s competed at a very high level very consistently. He’s bounced back from the occasional rough outing, and so we’ve been very pleased with his development this year.
“He just needs experience. This is still a very new player to professional baseball, and he has moved very rapidly through our system, and he has earned that, and he deserves that. But I think we need to make sure that he also dominates the level he’s at now before we really start talking about what comes next.”
Pish-posh. Isn’t the fun part talking about what’s next when it comes to top prospects? To picture Sproat starting a game before a rabid crowd at Citi Field or even coming out of the bullpen to give the Mets’ questionable relief crew a shot in the arm?
Sproat said at the All-Star Futures Game in July that his goal is to make it to the majors this season.
Said Stearns: “I don’t think I’d take anything off the table at this point,” and why would he?
Stearns noted that the roster expands only from 26 to 28 on Sept. 1 nowadays, and you’re allowed to have only 14 pitchers.
“I think September call-ups is a little bit of a different animal now than it was a couple years ago,” Stearns said. “It’s a two-player expansion — one position player, one pitcher. So it’s not quite as robust as it was. And really, those calls are going to be made by what the team need is at that particular point in time.”
There’s one other factor: Because this is Sproat’s first professional season, he is not on the Mets’ 40-man roster. Once he’s called up, the arbitration clock starts and Sproat’s years of control by the Mets shrink.
Not that money is that much of an object for the Steve Cohen Mets, but as Stearns put it, “I think all of those types of extraneous factors play a part in a call-up decision. At any point, the most important factor is what is the right fit for both the player and our major-league team. But yes, roster constraints, roster crunches, roster numbers, all that is going to play a factor in the decisions we make.”
The No. 1 factor, of course, will be if Sproat dominates Triple-A hitters. Once that happens — whether it’s this season or next — the Mets should have something special, both to watch and to talk about.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.