Ryan Clifford
Week: 6 G, 17 AB, .353/.539/.941, 6 H, 4 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 6 BB, 6 K, 1/1 SB (Double-A)
2024 Season: 31 G, 102 AB, .216/.412/.304, 22 H, 6 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 32 BB, 42 K, 1/1 SB, .362 BABIP (High-A) / 28 G, 88 AB, .205/.377/.534, 18 H, 8 2B, 0 3B, 7 HR, 23 BB, 34 K, 1/2 SB, .229 BABIP (Double-A)
A North Carolina native, Ryan Clifford attended Leesville Road High School, a public school in Raleigh. A 2020 freshman, the majority of the baseball season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but nonetheless was named the 2020 Gatorade Player of the Year (North Carolina) for hitting .692 with 3 home runs in 4 games. In his sophom*ore year, he transferred to the Pro5 Baseball Academy in Apex, North Carolina, a program that has sent nearly 90% of its students either to college to play baseball or straight to the pros out of the MLB Draft. Over the next two years, his profile would rise and his name would commonly be bandied about by scouts and evaluators for his work at workouts and in exhibition games across the showcase circuit.
Clifford was considered one of the better high school bats in the 2022 MLB Draft class, but his slightly older age relative to his peers coupled less-impressive-than-expected numbers in his junior and senior seasons and his commitment to Vanderbilt University caused him to fall through the cracks and drop down the board. The Mets were actually high on him and were considering drafting him in a high round thanks to their two first-round picks and additional QO free agent compensation round pick in the draft but were unable to make the money work with the higher-priority players they were already deciding to draft. Finally, in the 11th round of the 2022 MLB Draft, the Houston Astros selected him, the 343rd overall selection made. Astros scouting director Kriss Gross was initially unsure if the team would be able to find the financial flexibility to sign Clifford, but knew they had to try when he dropped all the way to the 11th round. Ultimately, they were able buy him out of his commitment to Vanderbilt, signing him for $1,256,530, roughly equivalent to the MLB-assigned slot values of second-round picks in the 2022 MLB Draft.
In his limited time in the Astros system, Clifford impressed. After getting drafted, he appeared in 25 games in 2022 for the FCL Astros Orange and the Single-A Fayetteville Woodpeckers and hit .247/.426/.390 with 5 doubles, 2 home runs, 2 stolen bases, and 22 walks to 31 strikeouts. He began the 2023 season with the Woodpeckers and spent 25 games with them before being promoted to the High-A Ashville Tourists in May. Clifford was phenomenal with them, hitting .337/.488/.457 in 25 games with 5 doubles, 2 home runs, 3 stolen bases, and 25 walks to 27 strikeouts. For as good as the 19-year-old was, he was just scratching the surface. In the two-and-a-half months he played with the Tourists from mid-May until the end of July, Clifford hit .271/.356/.547 in 58 games with 11 doubles, 16 home runs, 1 stolen base, and 21 walks to 61 strikeouts.
On August 1, the Mets traded Justin Verlander to the Astros and received Clifford and former Tourists teammate Drew Gilbert in return. Clifford was assigned to the Brooklyn Cyclones and finished out the rest of the season there, hitting .188/.307/.376 in 32 games with 4 doubles, 6 home runs, 1 stolen base, and 18 walks to 51 strikeouts. All in all, with all three teams, he hit .262/.374/.480 with 20 doubles, 24 home runs, 5 stolen bases in 7 attempts, and 64 walks to 140 strikeouts.
His less-than-impressive run with Brooklyn continued into 2024, as he began the year with the Cyclones and hit just .216/.412/.304, the paltry batting average and slugging percentage numbers buoyed by 32 walks in 31 games. He was promoted to Double-A Binghamton on May 14 less on his ow merits and more on the concept that the tough environment of Coney Island in the early spring was detrimental to his continued development. Clifford continued struggling in May, but has really turned the corner since the calendar flipped to June. In 13 games since June 1, he is hitting .282/.482/.846 with 4 doubles, 6 home runs, 1 stolen base, and 14 walks to just 10 strikeouts.
As noted when the Amazin’ Avenue team ranked Clifford the Mets’ 4th top prospect, his home run and exit velocity numbers were exciting, but the slugger might not ever tap into his full potential if he continued being unable to elevate the ball, a common criticism for Mets hitting prospects over the last few years.
Clifford’s groundball rate jumped from a 35.7% in Ashville to a 47.8% with the Cyclones, while his flyball rate decreased roughly 5%, from 47.4% to 41.8%. The trend continued earlier this year, where he posted a 44.1% groundball rate and a 37.3% flyball rate with the Cyclones. In his limited time in Binghamton, the data has been completely thrown on its face; in his 28 games with the Rumble Ponies, Clifford is maintaining a 18.9% groundball rate and 64.2% flyball rate. Clifford is tapping into his raw power and driving the ball like never before. He has 18 hits total with Binghamton and 15 have been extra base hits, good for a .330 ISO. While that kind of production is likely unsustainable over the course of the season, hitting for power is key to Clifford being able to produce value as a player and it is a good sign that he is now showing signs of being able to do so again in the Mets system.
Jeffrey Colon
Week: 1 G (0 GS), 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K (High-A)
2024 Season: 13 G (0 GS), 28.2 IP, 36 H, 21 R, 20 ER (6.28 ERA), 12 BB, 18 K, .350 BABIP / 1 G (0 GS), 1.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER (27.00 ERA), 3 BB, 0 K, .400 BABIP
Jeffrey Colon was born in Las Matas de Farfan, Dominican Republic, a town not far from the Haitian border that was the birthplace of numerous current and former major leaguers, including Jean Segura, Juan Encarnación, Roberto Novoa, Odalis Perez, Ramón Santiago, and Valerio De Los Santos. Colon was signed by the Mets on June 2, 2018, at the very end of the 2018-2019 international signing period and spent the entire season in the Dominican Summer League. The 18-year-old appeared in 15 games and pitched a total of 34.0 innings, posting a 4.24 ERA with 30 hits allowed, 16 walks, and 33 strikeouts. He was sent stateside in 2019, pitching for the GCL Mets, and had a similar season in the complex; appearing in 19 games, he posted a 4.94 ERA in 27.1 innings pitched, allowing 28 hits, walking 17, and striking out 22.
After missing 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Colon split the year with the FCL Mets and the St. Lucie Mets, pitching 18.2 innings for both teams to varying results. With the FCL Mets, he appeared in 9 games and posted a 1.93 ERA, allowing 14 hits, walking 3, and striking out 27. With the St. Lucie Mets, he appeared in 14 games and posted a 6.27 ERA, allowing 28 hits, walking 11, and striking out 17. He began the 2022 season with St. Lucie and had a much better go at it this season. The 22-year-old appeared in 13 games and posted a 3.23 ERA in 47.1 innings, allowing 41 hits, walking 11, and striking out 57. He was promoted to High-A Brooklyn in mid-August and was extremely effective in the 6 outings he had in Coney Island. Throwing 25.1 innings, the right-hander posted a 1.07 ERA with 13 hits allowed, 7 walks, and 27 strikeouts. All in all, at both levels combined, Colon posted a 2.48 ERA in 72.2 innings, allowing 54 hits, walking 18, and striking out 84. He spent the entire 2023 season with the Brooklyn Cyclones, missing roughly all of July and August due to an injury. The 23-year-old had a fairly erratic season, posting a 5.72 ERA in 61.1 innings, allowing 75 hits, walking 22, and striking out 54.
The right-hander throws from a low-three-quarters arm slot, with a long arm action through the back and minimal unnecessary movement. Colon is mainly a fastball/changeup pitcher. He pitches backwards, using his changeup roughly 50% of the time, and complementing it with his fastball. Colon’s fastball sits in the high-80s-to-low-90s and has slight armside run to go along with some natural sink. The right-hander currently has a 57.1% groundball rate and posted 50+% rates in the prior two seasons as well on the strength of the sink of his fastball and the weak contact from his changeup. He throws two different versions of his changeup. One is thrown a bit harder, hovering around 90 MPH, and features more horizontal movement than vertical drop, and the other is thrown a bit slower, sitting in the mid-80s, and features more vertical drop than horizontal movement.
