Ryan Clifford
Week: 6 G, 23 AB, .391/.440/.783, 9 H, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 2 BB, 4 K, 1/1 SB (Triple-A)
2026 Season: 37 G, 131 AB, .252/.327/.473, 33 H, 6 2B, 1 3B, 7 HR, 15 BB, 53 K, 3/5 SB, .361 BABIP (Triple-A)
Ryan Clifford logged 9 hits this past week, over 25% of his total on the season. The slugger is one of the streakiest minor league hitters the Mets have had in years, maybe even decades. When he is cold, he can be a black hole in the lineup, incapable of even having productive at-bats like moving runners over or plating
sac flies. When he is hot, he can single-handedly win games, or entire series’; Syracuse lost this week’s series against Rochester 4 games to 2, so maybe next week.
Given how moribund the Mets currently are and how poorly David Stearns handled the first base situation over the off-season, now would be the perfect opportunity for Clifford to make his case and force his name into the conversation. Unfortunately, Clifford is not having that kind of season, and truthfully, may simply not be a player who has the necessary tools and abilities to play in the majors. There have been plenty of players in baseball history who had light tower power, blazing speed, a cannon for an arm, or an elite glove, or some combination of some or all of those tools, but if you can’t hit, you can’t hit.
Generously, Ryan Clifford has a below-average hit tool, if not something considered below that; he has not hit above .240 since 2023, when he hit .271 in 58 games in the late spring/early summer for the High-A Ashville Tourists just prior to being traded to the Mets. Since then, he hit .201 in 63 games with the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2023-2024, .237 in 203 with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in 2024-2025, and, interestingly enough, .237 in 71 games with the Syracuse Mets from his promotion there in late 2025 until Sunday night, all while striking out roughly around 30% of the time.
If transcribed 1:1 at the major league level, a .240 batting average with Clifford’s strong walk rate and his obvious power would be more than palatable, but there’s the rub: these things do not get transcribed 1:1 from the upper levels of the minor league to the majors.
Mark Vientos, the most successful of the most recent group of Mets prospects to make it to the majors, hit .281 during his 72 games in Double-A and .285 in his 210 games in Triple-A; he is currently a .239 hitter in 345 MLB games/1199 at-bats. Brett Baty hit .299 in 129 Double-A games and .273 in 97 Triple-A games; he is currently a .229 hitter in 336 MLB games/1048 at-bats. Ronny Mauricio hit .259 in 136 Double-A games and .305 in 140 Triple-A games; he is a .233 hitter in 97 MLB games/301 at-bats at present.
I’m not really sure what kind of baseball future Ryan Clifford is going to have, and maybe I’m being unfairly pessimistic as I’ve been accused of being by others in the past, but I don’t really know if I see it, even when I squint. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
Jonathan Santucci
Week: 1 G (1 GS), 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K (Double-A)
2026 Season: 6 G (6 GS), 27.1 IP, 18 H, 15 R, 14 ER (4.61 ERA), 17 BB, 38 K, .278 BABIP (High-A)
We are a month-plus into the season now, and this was Jonathan Santucci’s first real actually good game. I wouldn’t say that the former Blue Devil has been bad, but he certainly hasn’t been good, either. Coming into his start this past week, the left-hander had a 5.57 ERA in 21.0 innings over five starts, with 14 hits allowed, 17 walks, and 31 strikeouts.
Given the strong strikeout rate and BAA, Santucci’s stuff has not backed up, but he is not as sharp as he was last season, when he posted a 2.52 ERA in 50.0 innings with the Rumble Ponies. Command has been Santucci’s biggest problem going back to his college days, and that has been his biggest issue so far this season, an issue that he largely avoided last year; with 17 walks, he has virtually reached the same total he had last season while pitching for Binghamton (18), but in roughly 20 fewer innings. The left-hander generally has not looked as sharp the second or third time through the order, wearing himself out and/or giving batters a look at all of his pitches because of his inability to put himself in favorable counts early, and his stat splits for the fourth inning and beyond bear this out- his hit rate increases, his walk rate increases, and his strikeout rate shrinks.
With that said, coincidentally or perhaps not, like Jonah Tong, Santucci has been quite unlucky in that the relievers who are coming in to replace him are allowing the baserunners he put on base to score at astronomically high rates. Over the course of those above-mentioned six starts prior to his start this past week, Santucci has an abysmal 60.3% LOB%, roughly 10-15% below the major league average; with his most recent start last week included, that number climbs to 64.9%, roughly 5-10% below the major league average. Having allowed 14 earned runs so far this season in 27.1 innings, if the left-hander’s LOB% was adjusted to be the MLB average, he would currently have a 3.95 to 4.28 ERA.
