Nationals’ and Braves’ Youth Revival Should Concern New York Mets

The New York Mets are striving to turn their franchise around by investing in their future and hinging their hopes on the young players they have down in their Minor League system. Unfortunately, their counterparts within National League East division — specifically the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves — are doing that too.

The Nationals and Braves are both coming off a season in which they clinched playoff berths. Stacked with young talent throughout the minors and at the Major League level, they are already among baseball’s elite teams and are built to last.

The Mets may have their focus in the right place, but they are going to need to play catch-up if they wish to return to prominence in what appears to be a very competitive division for years to come.

General manager Sandy Alderson is not ready to count his Mets out yet.

“I would agree that the Nationals and the Braves appear to be very good teams for ’13 and beyond,” Alderson told Mets.com. “But many teams have been described as set up well for the long haul, and it hasn’t always worked out as described.”

The GM is not wrong. Teams like the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates have seemingly been building forever but few of their “sure things” have ever really panned out. The Mets are hopeful that this may be the case for their divisional foes. Meanwhile, they are optimistic that young guns like pitchers Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler, and newly-acquired catcher Travis d’Arnaud, can catapult the Mets to the top of the division in the next few years.

Wheeler and d’Arnaud both rank within ScoutingBook.com’s top 20 prospects in all of Major League Baseball, while Harvey is expected to be a key part of the Mets’ starting rotation this season. All three men make up a prospective Mets team that could succeed if they are able to exceed the expectations that have been placed upon them.

But the Nationals have guys like elite pitching ace Stephen Strasburg and NL Rookie of the Year, Bryce Harper. The Braves have infielders Freddie Freeman and Juan Francisco, outfielder Jason Heyward and a pitching staff steaming with promising young fireballers. These players should spearhead both teams’ perennial playoff contention.

The Mets should feel very positive about the guys they have lined up to star for them in the future. But there is no ignoring that they have a lot of ground to make up in order to contend within a feisty NL East division.

 

Louis Musto is a contributor to the Sports Journey Broadcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LouisMusto.