The New York Mets will be a part of the Arizona Fall League action soon, and it’s a key part of prospect evaluation in the offseason. Jonathan Mayo and Sam Dykstra of MLB.com did a piece on this recently on the “sleeper” prospect for every team in baseball, and right-hander Peyton Prescott got the nod for the Mets.
Consider this choice taking a flyer on velocity, which is what the Mets are doing with Prescott. He hit triple digits coming out of the Florida State bullpen in the spring of 2025, then tore the UCL in his right elbow and needed Tommy John surgery.
The Mets took him in the fifth round anyway, believing it could be a buy-low opportunity on an electric arm, per the writers. Prescott finally made his organizational debut with one inning for Single-A St. Lucie, and he ticked the gun at 95 while sprinkling in cutters, sliders, changeups and curveballs over what became an 18-pitch outing.
Prescott was able to use the slider and changeup to get strikeouts back during his FSU days, but who knows if that will hold in the AFL. That’s why he’s a sleeper, and the Mets want him to throw more innings, startingin the AFL, to see if he’s for real.
The parallels further up the organizational food chain are guys like Christian Scott and Dylan Ross, and they’re pretty good examples about how this sort of thing can go. Everybody knows about Scott now because he was able to come back from Tommy John and finally join the rotation, and it worked out reasonably well. Scott is still struggling with injuries from time to time, but he has a solid shot to stick in the rotation next year.
Ross is the guy nobody knows about, because his struggles with command and control haven’t worked out. He was touted as a possibility to step up and get some innings as a high-leverage reliever based on his velocity, but he wound up pitching just a single inning this year. He’s now 26, which means his status as a prospect is very much in doubt.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s Zac Thornton, who came from out of nowhere this year because he knows how to pitch. Thornton typically throws in the low 90s, but he attacks the strike zone, and he’s considered a strong candidate to be an important part of the rotation.
