The Mets are calling up top talent AJ EwingThe Athletic’s Will Samson reports. He should make his major league debut tomorrow if the Mets host Jack Flaherty and the Tigers went to Citi Field. New York will need to create space on the 40-man roster.
It’s a brutal promotion the Mets hope will revive an offense that ranks 29th in scoring. Ewing, 21, opened this season in Double-A. New York recently promoted him to Triple-A Syracuse on April 27 and will give him MLB care after 12 games there.
Ewing was a fourth round pick out of high school in the 2023 draft. The Mets selected him with the #134 overall pick, their compensation for the loss Jacob deGromand signed him away from committing to Alabama. It was a great find in New York’s scouting department, as Ewing’s plate training and athleticism moved him up the prospect lists.
The left-handed hitting Ewing hit .290 with an on-base percentage close to .400 in parts of four minor league seasons. He’s off to an even better start this year, sporting a .339/.447/.514 line over 132 plate appearances between the top two. Ewing walked about 17% of the time against a 15.2% strikeout rate. He’s 17-18 in steals, one year after swiping 70 bags while moving up from Low-A to Double-A.
There are some parallels with the Mets’ decision to have him Carson Benge camp after playing just 24 Triple-A games. Benge has had a cold start to his MLB career but has become one of the team’s top hitters over the past few weeks. He has officially graduated from prospect status, leaving Ewing as the Mets’ best prospect in Baseball America’s latest update of the Top 100 minor league talents. BA put Ewing in chance #33 in the game. MLB Pipeline ranks him 78th overall and second in the program behind the right-hander Jonah Tong.
Listed at 6’0 and 160 pounds, Ewing doesn’t have much raw power. He has 15 home runs, just five of which have come since the start of the 2025 season. Baseball America and Keith Law of The Athletic each wrote during the offseason that Ewing makes harder contact than his home run total might suggest, though his approach is geared more towards line drives and getting on base than power hitting.
Ewing had some concerns early in his minor league career. He’s slowed that down a lot over the last year and more, but he’ll face a much bigger challenge against MLB pitching. There’s no question about his athleticism, though, and Ewing’s plus speed should make him an asset on the bases and give him value defensively.
Scheduled as a second baseman, Ewing moved on to the field in 2024. He has started four games at sophomore level this year but is a middle infielder. He should step into the everyday midfield role between Benge and Juan Soto at the moment. The Mets are set Luis Robert Jr. on the injured list in late April with a disc herniation. His return time is uncertain. They split down the middle field Tyrone Taylor and Benge – nge MJ Melendez drawing from the list of the right field – since Robert came down.
Taylor’s glove has made him a favorite of president of baseball operations David Stearns, but he has a .219 OBP through his first 76 plate appearances. Melendez came out of the gates hot but is 3-19 since the calendar turned to May. He spent most of last year in Triple-A for a Kansas City team that had the worst outfield in MLB.
Melendez and Taylor have never been big problems for the Mets, but they are easy enough to get out of the lineup. New York’s .287 on-base percentage is the worst in MLB, meaning Ewing will only need to carry a fraction of his minor league production to get better. If both of them have Benge playing once Robert returns from the injured list, the Mets can give him reps at second base over this stretch. Marcus Semien and trade some defense for offense.
Benge, Melendez, Brett Baty again Francisco Alvarez they are the only hitters on New York’s MLB roster with minor league options. It seems safe to assume that Benge and Alvarez were not demoted. Baty doesn’t hit but is a third baseman Francisco Lindor again Ronny Mauricio pain again Bo Bichette needed at shortstop. Melendez kept hitting third with a right-handed throw, the offense of the entire game. There’s a good chance the Mets will designate someone for assignment tomorrow. Vidal Brujan, Andy Ibanez again Austin Slater they are all in bench roles.
Ewing entered this season as a Top 100 prospect per BA, MLB Pipeline and ESPN. So he meets the criteria to win himself a full year of playing time if he finishes in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting. (The Mets can’t get another draft pick because they didn’t call him up in mid-April.) Otherwise he’ll miss a full year of service and be under team control for six seasons other than this one. He’ll have a chance to settle early as a Super Two player during the 2028-29 offseason, but future optional assignments in Triple-A could change that trajectory.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images.
