The question of starting pitching depth remains an important one for the New York Mets, who are down three of their top eight starting pitchers two months into the season. While it looks like Tylor Megill could be back in the mix soon, both Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer are likely out until July at the earliest. Things could get dicey if the Mets suffer another rotation injury, but they do have some intriguing prospects in their farm system that could help. One of those is Connor Grey, and he is the focus of this week’s edition of Minor League Mondays.
Grey is actually in his second year in the Mets’ organization after beginning his professional career as a 20th-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2016 draft. The Diamondbacks moved on from Grey in 2020 and the Mets picked him up last June, assigning him to AA Binghamton to serve as rotation depth for the Rumble Ponies. The Mets liked what they saw from Grey, who was one of their picks to go to the Arizona Fall League a year ago, and bumped him up to AAA Syracuse to start the season.
Grey is pitching very well for Syracuse, going 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA in eight appearances, including seven starts. A rough outing in his last turn snapped a streak of three consecutive scoreless starts for Grey, who has struck out 28 batters and walked just 13 in 38 innings pitched. Team officials are high on Grey, who Mike Puma of the New York Post notes is drawing comparisons to Megill, who was largely unheralded last summer before finishing the season as a member of the Mets’ rotation.
The plan right now appears to be for Trevor Williams to fill a rotation spot until Megill is ready to rejoin the team, which makes sense since it wouldn’t be smart to add Grey to the 40-man roster until he is truly needed. The Mets may also keep an eye on Grey’s development as a potential bullpen option later in the season since they have a need for more arms out there due to injury and ineffectiveness. Grey is also someone who should find his way onto the 40-man roster by the end of the year in order to avoid losing him in the Rule V draft over the winter.
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