Mets prospect in Justin Verlander trade ‘destined to become a fan favorite’

The Mets traded Justin Verlander back to the Astros ahead of the trade deadline on Tuesday. Houston will also get $54 million if the $35 million option for the 2025 season becomes vested, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

In exchange, the Mets got the Astros’ No. 1 and No. 4 prospects Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford.

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Gilbert in particular should excite Mets fans – if that’s even possible in these dire times. The 22-year-old outfielder immediately becomes the team’s No. 4 ranked prospect, behind Kevin Parada, Luisangel Acuña, who they got from the Rangers for Max Scherzer, and Ronny Mauricio

Gilbert was drafted in the first round, No. 28 overall, in the 2022 MLB draft. In 92 minor league games, the left-handed hitter is slashing .278/.367/.465.

MLB Pipeline rates him highly and predicts him to be a “fan favorite.”

Gilbert is extremely aggressive in all phases of the game, yet his superb hand-eye coordination enables him to repeatedly barrel balls and produce high exit velocities. His left-handed stroke can get long because he hunts home runs, and while he rarely strikes out, he does make more ground-ball contact than desired. He’s not physical but does have enough bat speed and strength to provide 15-20 homers per season without selling out for power.

Gilbert has solid-to-plus speed and uses it to steal and take extra bases. His quickness and instincts allow him to cover ground in center field, where he shows the plus arm strength that produced fastballs clocked up to 93 mph during infrequent college pitching appearances. A fiery competitor with a lot of emotion, he’s destined to become a fan favorite but needs to play more under control at times.

Clifford doesn’t make MLB’s top 100 prospects list, but has played above expectations in Houston’s farm system. He was drafted in the 11th round of the 2022 MLB draft by the Astros. Since then, he has shown great progress in the minor leagues. He’s seen his batting average and slugging percentage balloon from .247 and .390 in 2022 to .291 and .520 this season.

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What’s most impressive is the 20-year-old’s patience at the plate. In two minor league seasons, Clifford has a .405 OBP. MLB Pipeline notes this in their rundown of him:

Clifford’s approach is more mature than that of most players his age, as he works counts and focuses on making hard contact. He has the bat speed and projectable strength to develop 20-25 home run power, and he does a good job of letting his power come naturally. He has a pretty left-handed swing and an efficient bat path, though his 30 percent strikeout rate in his introduction to pro ball showed he’ll need to do a better job of recognizing offspeed pitches.

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Manuel Gomez may be reached at mgomez@njadvancemedia.com.