This is the fifth part of a 10-part series breaking down the end of the minor league baseball season. Today, we’ll look at the prospects with the most to prove next season, beginning with the Mets.
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Reese Havens was taken with the 22nd overall pick of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft – four picks after Ike Davis. But while Davis was becoming a fixture in the Mets’ lineup this season, Havens spent the year almost exclusively stuck on the disabled list.
It’s not the first time Havens has been hurt since he was drafted out of South Carolina, where he played in every game the Gamecocks played in his three years on campus. He played 23 games in 2008 with Brooklyn, 97 games last year with High-A St. Lucie and 32 games between High-A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton.
When the second baseman has been on the field, he’s been very successful – he’s hit 26 homers and driven in 82 runs in 152 professional games. But his struggles to stay healthy have left many wondering if he has a future in Queens.
There’s no question, if he stays healthy, that he’ll get an opportunity, and possibly as soon as next year. Over the past two years, Luis Castillo, along with Oliver Perez, has become one of the symbols of the Mets’ struggles to the team’s fans. Havens would get a clean slate and a long leash to succeed from them.
But the only way he’ll be able to do that is if he stays healthy next season. He probably will start the year with Double-A Binghamton, with a likely promotion to Triple-A Buffalo around midseason. If the Mets choose to get rid of Castillo before the end of next season – when his contract runs out – he could get an even earlier audition.
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Normally it would be hard to justify making someone who has never thrown a professional pitch the pitcher with the most to prove in an organization for the coming season.
But Matt Harvey isn’t in a normal situation.
The seventh overall pick in June’s draft is going to be measured every step of the way by how he matches up with the last top 10 pick the Mets had – another college right-hander in Mike Pelfrey, back in 2005. Like Harvey, Pelfrey waited until the August signing deadline to sign, and didn’t make his professional debut until the following year.
But Pelfrey rocketed through the system, and made his professional debut before the end of the 2006 season. A similar rise through the ranks could be expected by members of a Mets fan base beaten down over the series of events over the past three years, and looking for anything to be excited about.
The former North Carolina right-hander will almost certainly begin the year with High-A St. Lucie. His progress from there will be determined by his success.
tbontemps@nypost.com
