00:00And let's start with A.J. Ewing with the New York Mets. This guy is a top 50 prospect in
00:04Major League Baseball on JustBaseball.com. I believe he's checking in at number 43. And he was hitting a tick
00:11under 340 with a 961 OPS with AAA Syracuse.
00:15We just had a conversation about A.J. Ewing on the Call Up podcast, our prospect-centered show. And we
00:21were talking about the great spring training that Ewing had where he OPSed over 1,000 in a pretty long
00:27look in Mets spring training.
00:29Then he goes to AA where he had just a very brief sample at at the end of the 2025
00:33season and was outstanding. Walking more than he punched out. Stealing bases galore. OPS flirting with 1,000.
00:40And he goes to AAA, doesn't skip a beat. The New York Mets are struggling mightily.
00:44And they have the opportunity to get a 21-year-old that has proven so much already in the minor
00:50leagues in not too long a time period up to really prove it in the show.
00:55Yeah, I mean, we talked about on here a couple different times. One specifically shouting out Ewing and then even
01:01on the roundup just being like, get the youngins up.
01:03They just need somebody or a couple guys to potentially jolt this team because right now it's just not happening
01:10with the vets.
01:11And I love what Ewing brings to the table for this team. And we were talking about on the call
01:16-up just like they need run creators.
01:19And whether that means running into a ball and leaving the yard or slapping a single, stealing second, wreaking havoc
01:27on the base paths and scoring on a single from second or whatever it may be.
01:31Like they just need more of that. And you have a guy here in Ewing that can play center field,
01:36can also play second base if you want to get semi in a day off.
01:39And also has been one of the best base dealers in all of professional baseball, really since he's broken into
01:46pro ball, since he's been drafted.
01:48Last year, he stole 70 bags on 81 tries. And this year, already 17 for 18. I mean, this is
01:55going to be a big part of his game.
01:56We were talking about more specifically in granular on the call-up where Ewing is one of the better fastball
02:03hitters in the minor leagues and like 450 against him this year.
02:06He can tend to get a little bit slower on the breaking balls and try to slow himself down to
02:10hit it and like put himself into a B swing.
02:12But he does a really good job of laying off of them. And I think he'll get better and better
02:15at recognizing spin and hitting it more effectively.
02:17But as long as he can close that gap a little bit, he'll be fine. But even more importantly right
02:22now to be a spark, the fact that he's sub 20 chase rate against all pitch types and especially spin
02:28hammers fastballs and puts bad on ball and has increased the exit velocities as well.
02:33Like this is a guy that could absolutely get up to the big leagues, get hot and be a spark
02:37for your offense, as well as the fact that he can go play a pretty solid center field.
02:41Yeah, we were talking about the best foot forward for the New York Mets kind of moving forward in the
02:46outfield.
02:47And, you know, you got to factor in Luis Robert Jr. with what he has right now.
02:51But that Luis Robert era in New York, it's probably going to be short lived.
02:55You have no idea. He's already hurt.
02:58I don't know what they were expecting when they acquired him via trade, to be brutally honest with you.
03:03If they were looking for him to play like a healthy 140 games and put up that Luis Robert season
03:09that everybody has been waiting for and we've gotten literally once, that's one thing.
03:14But I mean, he's hurt again.
03:17He started hot and then he tapered off big time before getting hurt.
03:21Luis Robert is not, again, long live for that New York Mets outfield.
03:25So the best version of the New York Mets outfield moving forward is probably Soto and left, Ewing and center
03:31and Benj and right.
03:33And you have a couple of months, it seems like, or a couple of weeks, at least, before Robert comes
03:37back to really kind of see how it all will play out.
03:42Ewing and Benj can cover a lot of ground out there, too.
03:44And the speed and contact combination that they could bring to the table, I think, is really fun.
03:50And so I think short term and long term, that seems to be the answer.
03:54And for a Mets team that may have to start thinking long term by the second half of this year,
03:58it's ironic that also those long term pieces could be who helped them in the short term.
04:03So I think this is a really good, aggressive move.
04:06And as we talked about, like Ewing had only played 18 games or 28 games, excuse me, at double A
04:12at the end of last year, a year that he started at low A.
04:15But he was so good that they pushed him all the way up to double A to finish the year.
04:21How impressive he was in big league spring training and spring training in general.
04:25After 18 really good double A games to start this year, the Mets already said, let's get you to triple.
04:31The fact that they've seen enough already to say, like, this is a guy that can help us now, I
04:35think, says a lot about Ewing long term, whether he has success right away or not.
04:38This is a guy that they value greatly. And when we were talking about the Freddie Peralta trade and that
04:43whole scenario and, you know, what iterations of prospect packages could go.
04:49So I remain pretty adamant that I think Ewing is the better long term piece than Jet Williams and a
04:54guy that I assumed the Mets were more keen on holding on to.
04:58I don't know if we'll ever fully know that. I'm sure the Mets would say that.
05:01I'm not sure what the Brewers would tell you. I don't think the Brewers would say we asked for Ewing
05:03and we got Jet instead.
05:05But I really do think Ewing was the more valuable asset there.
05:09And I think the Mets definitely see it that way now.
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