Randy Guzman
Week: 6 G, 24 AB, .250/.419/.750, 6 H, 1 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 5 BB, 3 K, 2/2 SB (Single-A)
2026 Season: 14 G, 50 AB, .200/.344/.440, 10 H, 1 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 7 BB, 16 K, 3/3 SB, .226 BABIP (Single-A)
Randy Guzman came into this series hitting .154/.267/.154, still looking for his first extra base hit. The young slugger found his power stroke over the course of the series, hitting a double, hitting a triple, and launching not one, not two, but three home runs. He went 3-5 on April 15th, hitting a triple and two of his three homers for the week, raising his slugging percentage from .129 to .417 in just a single game.
This time last year, Randy Guzman was on few, if any, radars. Coming into the season, he had two seasons of experience, both in the Dominican Summer League, where he was a cumulative .186/.324/.324 hitter in 67 games with the DSL Mets Orange and the DSL Mets Blue. While I, personally, don’t know how close to the chopping block he was, as an older player from the DR without much pedigree and who was not performing well, one imagines that Guzman did not have much going for him. What he did have on his side was the fact that he was the fact that he was a hard worker; Guzman was known to always hustle, to listen to his coaches, and to apply himself. When the 2025 season started, even though his numbers did not necessarily warrant it, the infielder/outfielder was sent stateside and promoted to the FCL Mets, a move meant to boost morale among DSL players by highlighting that hard work and perseverance is noticed.
Improbably, Guzman responded to the promotion. He got off to a strong start to the FCL Mets season and continued hitting. When the Florida Complex League season ended in late July, Guzman had hit .282/.371/.474 with 9 doubles, 7 home runs, and 15 walks to 33 strikeouts. Continuing to challenge the 20-year-old, he was promoted to the Single-A St. Lucie Mets and finished the season in the Florida State League. Guzman picked up right where he left off with the FCL Mets and hit .333/.381/.604 in 26 games with St. Lucie, logging 13 doubles, 2 triples, and 3 home runs, with 6 walks to 21 strikeouts. In 75 games in total, he hit .302/.375/.524 with 22 doubles, 2 triples, and 10 home runs, walking 21 times and striking out 54 times.
Coming into the season, Guzman was ranked 23 on the Amazin’ Avenue Top 25 Mets Prospects list- and had his spot increase two slots when Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat were traded for Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers in late January. The Mets had him begin the year with St. Lucie, but barring some severe regression, I would expect him to eventually make it as high as High-A Brooklyn sometime this year.
The data that we have on Guzman this year so far is so limited as to be nearly worthless, but in that limited dataset, the most striking thing that sticks out are the numerous problematic launch angles Guzman has put balls in play with; at the time of this writing, he is averaging a 6-degree launch angle. As mentioned, the data for Guzman is extremely limited at the moment, but broader trends bear this out: his line drive rate is currently 17.6%, his groundball rate 61.8%, and his flyball rate 20.6%. Hitting so many balls on the ground at this moment, running a BABIP of .226, it is no wonder that his batting average is straddling the Mendoza line at .200. As compared to his numbers in St. Lucie last season, the right-hander should be due for some positive regression. While he may not start playing like a .300 hitter on pace to hit 60 home runs, Guzman undoubtedly should begin playing better baseball as the season progresses.
Jose Chirinos
Week: 2 G (2 GS), 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K (Single-A)
2026 Season: 3 G (3 GS), 10.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER (2.70 ERA), 4 BB, 13 K, .304 BABIP (Single-A)
Born in Los Puertos de Altagracia, Venezuela, Jose Chirinos was signed by the Mets on January 15, 2022, the first day of the 2022 international signing period. Receiving a $10,000 signing bonus, the 17-year-old right-hander was assigned to the Dominican Summer League for the year, where he posted a 4.91 ERA in 33.0 innings, allowing 31 hits, walking 18, and striking out 29. He remained in the DSL for the 2023 season as well, posting a nearly identical 4.62 ERA in 39.0 innings with 40 hits allowed, 17 walks, but with a much improved 51 strikeouts.
The organization sent him stateside in 2024, assigning him to the Florida Complex League for the majority of the season, getting a single token inning with the Single-A St. Lucie Mets in September. The results were not great, but rather, more of the same, albeit at a higher level; the right-hander posted a cumulative 6.21 ERA in 37.2 innings, allowing 36 hits, walking 26, and striking out 44. Things changed for Chirinos in 2025, and he began seeing success. Starting the year out back with the FCL Mets, the right-hander made 4 appearances, starting 3 games, and posted a 2.35 ERA in 15.1 innings, allowing 11 hits, walking 6, and striking out 22. Returning to St. Lucie that June, he remained there for the rest of the season and ended up posting a 3.20 ERA in 56.1 innings over 15 games, 10 of which were starts. He allowed 40 hits, walked 30, and struck out 51. In total, the 20-year-old posted a cumulative 3.01 ERA in 71.2 innings, allowing 51 hits, walking 36, and striking out 73.
With his lanky 6’3”, 170-pound frame and long, flowing brown hair spilling out from underneath his cap, and low-effort, whippy, low-three-quarters arm slot, it would be easy to confuse Jose Chirinos on the mound with Jacob deGrom. Unfortunately, a slight physical appearance is where the deGrom comparisons end- at least for now.
Chirinos has a standard four-pitch repertoire, throwing a two-seam fastball, cutter, slider, and changeup. He generally utilizes his fastball roughly 50% of the time, mixing in his cutter, changeup, and slider at similar intervals, leaning more heavily on whichever pitch he has a better feel for at the time. In general, his slider has been his most effective swing-and-miss pitch, while his cutter has been his least.
His fastball has averaged 93 MPH so far this season, ranging 91 to 95 MPH. The pitch produces average spin rates for a sinker, but in general, because of the amount of active spin on the pitch, it does not have much movement. He commands the ball well, and rather than get his swings-and-misses on his fastball, it better serves as a set-up for his secondary offerings.
Chirinos’ slider is arguably his best strikeout pitch. Sitting in the high-70s-to-low-80s, the pitch has slurvy movement, with good horizontal movement and vertical break. He commands the pitch well and is able to get whiffs with the pitch at the lowest levels of the minor leagues, but will need to tighten up the pitch as he progresses up the minor league ladder.
His changeup sits in the high-70s-to-high-80s, with a much wider velocity band than you’d want for a changeup. Featuring minimal horizontal movement, his changeup is more effective in the lower end of that velocity band, as it acts similar to a bad splitter at the upper reaches of its velocity band. His cutter is arguably his least effective pitch. Sitting in the mid-to-high-80s, the pitch features very little movement; the pitch is effective when tunneled with his fastball or his slider, but in and of itself, the pitch lacks effective bite.
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