Billy Eppler breaks down what Mets top prospects Drew Gilbert, Luisangel Acuna bring to the table

Ahead of last week’s MLB trade deadline, general manager Billy Eppler said the Mets’ “price points are high” when they were entertaining offers. "We have valuations on our existing personnel,” he said, "and the bar's high to meet it.”

Over the weekend, Eppler was at the club’s Double-A affiliate in Binghamton getting a first-hand look at some of the return from the trades of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. And in Saturday's doubleheader, shortstop Luisangel Acuna and center fielder Drew Gilbert, made plays to help Binghamton earn the sweep.

“It's a testament to our scouting group, our player personnel group, frankly, our development group to be able to provide a platform and provide an environment where the players feel very comfortable early on. So that was good to see,” Eppler told the Rumble Ponies pregame show Sunday.

In trading away a pair of future Hall of Fame pitchers, Eppler sees Acuna (No. 42 prospect in MLB) and Gilbert (No. 66 prospect) as two players “who carry a premium” as middle-of-the-diamond defenders and players with skillsets that should excite Mets fans.

“With Acuna, the skillset that we know he can stay at shortstop, we know that if second base is thrown at him in the future that that’s not gonna be a problem for him,” Eppler said. “He’s got an extremely high internal clock, a lot of agility, great footwork, arm strength, just a lot of acumen to play in the middle of the diamond.

“Watching him in the batter’s box, it’s a contact-orientated approach. He’s got some impact, he gets on the bases it’s pretty electric.”

In one instance during the weekend doubleheader, Acuna “was cooking on first to third” and to see the 21-year-old move like that was “really good to see.”

“The athleticism, kind of just pops. It’s really easy to see,” Eppler said of Acuna.

He was just as high on the 22-year-old Gilbert.

“Everyone is gonna love [him]. You should just come watch Drew,” Eppler said. “He’s really hard to describe. He plays the game with his hair on fire. That guy’s gonna collide with everything: teammates, walls, whatever, dive head-first into bags and just probably our own little version of Charlie Hustle. He gets after it.”

But in addition to the Pete Rose-esque side of the game, he added that Gilbert has “a lot of baseball intelligence in the outfield.” And part of that came threw when Eppler saw him communicate with the corner outfielders showing the new Mets’ No. 4-ranked prospect “really kinda takes that leadership responsibility that centerfielders have, looks like he really takes that seriously.”

At the plate, Eppler said Gilbert has a “really good understanding of the strike zone, can impact the baseball.”

While at Binghamton, Eppler also got the chance to see Jeremiah Jackson, acquired in a deal with the Los Angeles Angles for Dominic Leone, who “can also play a number of infield spots and whose got sneaky power.”

“When you look at him and look at his frame and then watch him hit the baseball he really gets all the ground force energy into his swing,” he said of Jackson, who is listed at six-foot, 165 pounds.

On the new acquisitions, Eppler said he was “excited to have those guys complement what was already a pretty strong roster here.”

Two of the guys already in the system were right-hander Christian Scott (the No. 29 prospect in the Mets' system, according to MLB Pipeline) and right-hander Blade Tidwell (No. 8), who just made his debut at Double-A.

On Scott, a 24-year-old who began the year at St. Luice and High-A Brooklyn, the general manager praised his fastball for having “some really unique characteristics” and added he mixed in his changeup and slider well en route to an 11-strikeout performance in 4.2 innings.

“I was really pleased with how he looked,” Eppler said. “He’s got all the makings to be a strong pitcher at the Major League level, it’s just a matter of time for him.”

Tidwell allowed three runs on four hits and four walks in 4.0 innings during his debut at Binghamton, but the general manager said he was “glad he can get here and get acclimated and just get tested at a pretty big jump from A-ball to here. Looking forward to watching him take his turns and just really master a lot of his weapons.”

He added: “The upside in him is tremendous. He’s got top-of-the-rotation weapons and tools.”

Overall, Eppler said he was pleased with what he was seeing.

“I think it’s just a testament to all our processes for acquiring talent and then developing that talent and really just trying to synthesize the worlds of acquisition and development so everybody is on the same page with everything we’re trying to do with bringing players in and then optimizing their development,” he said.