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Jacob Reimer
Week: 6 G, 25 AB, .400/.464/.840, 10 H, 2 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 3 BB, 3 K, 1/1 SB (High-A)
2025 Season: 25 G, 101 AB, .327/.393/.634, 33 H, 10 2B, 3 3B, 5 HR, 11 BB, 23 K, 2/2 SB, .384 BABIP (High-A)
Jacob Reimer was drafted by the Mets in the fourth round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Yucaipa High School in Yucaipa, California. He had a commitment to play for the University of Washington, but his desire to go pro outweighed his desire to go to college after high school, and he signed with the Mets, receiving a signing bonus of for $775,000, almost $250,000 over the MLB-assigned slot value of $507,500 for the 119th overall player selected. The Mets assigned him to the FCL Mets in August and he appeared in 7 games with them, hitting .261/.414/.478 with 1 home run, 0 stolen bases, 6 walks to 3 strikeouts. That winter, Amazin’ Avenue ranked him the Mets’ 14th top prospect.
Reimer was assigned to the St. Lucie Mets to begin the 2023 season and hit a solid .280/.412/.392 with 10 doubles, 1 home run, 3 stolen bases, and 44 walks to 61 strikeouts for them in 75 games, missing a bit of time in late June and early July due to an injury. At the beginning of August, the 19-year-old was promoted to the Brooklyn Cyclones and finished the rest of the season in Coney Island, hitting .203/.354/.279 in 25 games with 1 home run, 0 stolen bases, and 17 walks to 22 strikeouts. After the 2023 season ended, Reimer was ranked the Mets’ 9th best prospect.
During Spring Training 2024, the infielder pulled his hamstring. Estimated to return to the field in June, his recovery took a little longer than expected; he returned to the field in early July and finished his rehab at the end of the month. Ultimately, he only appeared in 14 official games for the Brooklyn Cyclones, his time there delayed by the injury and interrupted at the end of August by another trip to the injured list. All in all, he went 9-46 in those 14 games with 3 doubles, 8 walks, and 7 strikeouts. The Mets sent Reimer to the Arizona Fall League and he appeared in 17 games for the Scottsdale Scorpions, hitting 11-53 (.208/.371/.359) with 1 triple, 2 home runs, 1 stolen base, and 15 walks to 13 strikeouts. After the season concluded, Reimer was ranked the Mets’ 21st top prospect coming into 2025.
At the plate, Reimer starts with a slightly open setup, with a heavy load on his back leg. He closes that up with a small leg kick as the pitch is delivered and attacks the ball with a short, level swing. His approach is advanced, rarely chasing anything out of the zone or swinging at borderline pitches while making a ton of contact in the zone; his 91% Z-Contact Percentage was one of the highest in the Florida State League in 2023.
The right-hander recorded an average exit velocity of 87 MPH during his time with St. Lucie, with a high of 107.6 MPH. In extremely limited at-bats in the Arizona Fall League in 2024, he recorded an average exit velocity of 93.2 MPH, with a high of 105.3 MPH. Reimer has solid raw power, but one of his biggest issues as a professional has been efficiently tapping into it.
Reimer has had problems consistently hitting the ball with a productive launch angle, hammering far too many balls into the ground; In 2023, he averaged a 9 degree launch angle in 183 recorded batted ball events, with only 53 of those batted ball events hit within the 8-32 degree “sweet spot.” His launch angle data from the 2024 Arizona Fall League is such a small sample that it is more or less worthless to analyze in any meaningful way, but it also showed similar trends. With ground ball rates at nearly 50% and line drive and fly ball rates virtually half that, Reimer needed to start lifting the ball more not just to tap into his power, but to be an efficient ball player.
In the sample size of his first month in 2025, the infielder has seemingly done that. In 25 games and roughly 100 at-bats, he currently has a 27.3% line drive rate, 36.4% groundball rate, and 36.4% flyball rate. His line drive and fly ball rates are up roughly 5% as compared to his 2023 season, while his groundball rate is down roughly 10%. Furthermore, his HR/FB rate is almost double as compared to his 2023 season, and his ISO is virtually triple.
Reimer is hitting fewer balls on the ground and more of the balls that he is putting in play are going for extra bases. In short, Reimer is doing exactly what we hoped he would do.
Felipe De La Cruz
Week: 1 G, (1 GS), 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K (Triple-A)
2025 Season: 4 G (2 GS), 13.2 IP, 11 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 20 K, .290 BABIP (Double-A) / 1 G, (1 GS), 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, .091 BABIP (Triple-A)
Born in Yamasa, a rural agricultural community in eastern Dominican Republic, southpaw Felipe De La Cruz was signed by the Mets on March 17, 2021, a few months before his 20th birthday. The left-hander was assigned to the Dominican Summer League and appeared in 14 games for the DSL Mets, starting 12 of them. He had a solid debut season, posting a 3.13 ERA in 46.0 innings with 38 hits allowed, 16 walks, and 46 strikeouts. The Mets sent him stateside in 2022, pitching with the FCL Mets for the majority of the season and receiving a cup-of-coffee with the St. Lucie Mets in September. In the Florida Complex League, De La Cruz posted a 4.83 ERA in 31.2 innings, allowing 32 hits, walking 16, and striking out 44. In his two games with St. Lucie, the southpaw did not allow a run in 4.0 innings, allowing a pair of hits, walking none, and striking out 9.
The 22-year-old began the 2023 season with St. Lucie and pitched there until the end of August, when he was promoted to the Brooklyn Cyclones. He appeared in 21 games for the St. Lucie Mets, starting 19, and posted a 4.68 ERA in 90.1 innings, allowing 92 hits, walking 41, and striking out 114. In his three starts with the Cyclones, he posted a 2.65 ERA in 17.0 innings, allowing 11 hits, walking 5, and striking out 17. With both teams combined, he posted a 4.36 ERA in 107.1 innings in 2023, allowing 103 hits, walking 46, and striking out 131, the fifth-most of any pitcher in the Mets minor league system. He remained with the Cyclones for the entirety of the 2024 season, appearing in 25 games and making 24 starts for them, posting a 4.25 ERA in 106.0 innings, allowing 103 hits, walking 45, and striking out 116.
De La Cruz throws from a high-three-quarters arm slot with a slingy arm action. Standing an even 6’, the left-hander is listed at 160-pounds. While he all-but-certainly weights a little more than that, he is still a bit on the slim side, albeit a well-proportioned and athletic slim. De La Cruz pitched over 100 innings in back-to-back seasons in 2023 and 2024, one of six Mets minor leaguers to do so (along with Dom Hamel, Mike Vasil, Luis Moreno, Blade Tidwell, and Joander Suarez) and threw 80 or more pitches in a shade under 50% of his starts during that period of time (24/49 games). In past seasons, the southpaw has not shown any real difference between results against right-handers versus results against left-handers, but in limited innings this season, while having success against righties, he been even better against lefties.
For his career, the southpaw generally has heavily relied on his fastball, throwing it more than half the time, using his slider as a strikeout pitch, and his changeup as a change-of-pace offering. In his Triple-A debut on Friday night, he actually threw his slider more than anything else.
His fastball, a sinker, has well-above-average velocity for a left-handed pitcher, sitting in the low-to-mid-90s, topping out in the high-90s; in his last start, the pitch hit 97.3 MPH, averaging 94.5 MPH. The pitch generally gets plenty of swings-and-misses, but in his last start, De La Cruz actually induced no whiffs with it. His slider sits in the mid-80s and features two-plane, gyroscopic break at its best. In his Triple-A debut on Friday, the pitch got a comical 13 swings-and-misses on 24 swings, a 54% Whiff Percentage. De La Cruz’ changeup sits in the mid-to-high-80s and generates a lot of weak contact and fly balls in addition to swings-and-misses. He rarely utilizes the pitch, in most starts not even throwing double-digits of the offering.
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