The Mets have made their first round of cuts, sending the following three players to minor league camp: Brandon Nimmo, Gavin Cecchini and Xorge Carrillo. Nimmo and Cecchini, two former 1st round picks, were not expected to make the roster, and neither was Carrillo, who projects to open the season as the backup catcher for Triple-A Las Vegas.
Nimmo went 0-4 with a walk and Cecchini had a double and two walks in his short stint. Carrillo went 2-3. The team still has 50 players left in Spring Training, and will look to slim that number down mightily in the coming weeks.
As I will do with all of the cuts, each one of these player's will be analyzed briefly.
Brandon Nimmo- The soon-to-be 22 year old former 1st round pick had a breakout season in 2014, hitting .278/.394/.426 with 10 HR and 14 SB in 127 games with St. Lucie and Binghamton. He seemed to struggle after his promotion, however, hitting just .238/.339/.396 in 65 Double-A games. With that being said, he will likely begin the year at Double-A, and HOPEFULLY finish the year in Las Vegas.
It is evident that the organization has been taking it's time with Nimmo's development, as he hasn't been pushed along too much. It is no shock that he was cut this early, since he can now get more reps with the minor league squads as they prepare for their regular season.
Gavin Cecchini- The recently-turned 21 year old had a rough 2014 campaign, hitting just .247/.328/.378 in action with three different squads (Savannah, St. Lucie, Binghamton). I was surprised to see him get the call to Double-A, since he had done virtually nothing to deserve the promotion. However, unlike Nimmo, perhaps the organization wants to move Cecchini faster because of their dearth of shortstop depth.
I could see Cecchini starting the season in St. Lucie, and earning another go at it with Binghamton by May or June. The ceiling is there for the youngster, but I'm not sure if he's ready to put it all together just yet. He's certainly one to keep an eye out in the 2015 season.
Xorge Carrillo- Carrillo has actually made some steady progress throughout the minor league level, highlighted by his short stint in Las Vegas last year. As someone who is already 25 years old, he probably projects to be nothing more than a backup catcher, but is just another catcher that the Mets could turn to if the injury bug hits d'Arnaud and/or Recker in 2015.
There's no doubt that Carrillo can hit, as hit .285/.355/.357 in 66 games for Binghamton and Las Vegas in 2014. He will likely be the backup in Vegas as top prospect Kevin Plawecki is going to start the season there as well, but Xorge still has the opportunity to make some noise.
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