Scouting Report: Jefry Marte, 3B, New York Mets
In reviewing previous pieces about New York Mets third base prospect Jefry Marte, I realized he has been woefully under-covered on Scouting the Sally. While former teammate Wilmer Flores has received multiple full write ups and a plethora of videos, Marte has received much less attention. With only a game report from early 2009 and a few swings worth of video, I felt it was time to compile a full scouting report with video from the 2010 season.
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Physical Projection: Jefry Marte played the 2010 season in better shape than in 2009. Towards the end of that year, Marte had become bloated and slow and apparently took the offseason to work off a few pounds around his midsection. Still noticeable in 2010 were his muscular shoulders, forearms and lower half which leaves additional room to fill out as he matures.
Additional growth may mean a position switch for Marte. As a third baseman, he’s passable as an athlete for the position at present and does not move particularly well laterally. The Mets will have to be careful with his development as any size gained will need to be offset by agility work.
Offense: For about a year and a half, I lamented Marte’s offensive game as he simply showed no growth as a hitter. Just when I was ready to write him off, something clicked. Instead of flailing wildly at offspeed pitches, he stopped chasing and began forcing pitchers to throw fastballs in the zone. Once this happened, his fastball hitting prowess shone through as began crushing the pitch consistently. This led to a .354/.384/.585 July tear prior to an injury which ended his season prematurely.
This isn’t to say he’s out of the woods by any means. Marte has plenty of start-and-stop in his timing mechanism and lets an awful lot of power go to waste during his weight transfer. This has led to a slugging percentage of a middle infielder, not corner slugger which he needs to be. Of course Marte still has plenty of time to work things out, but one has to be concerned about when an injury first considered to be relatively minor winds up costing him the remainder of the season. Injuries have cost Marte about a half seasons worth of plate appearances during his time in Savannah and that development time is vital to his long term projection.
Defense: Marte improved on a disasterous 2009 season by improving in all defensive areas. Like so many young players, as his bat warmed up, that confidence carried into the field where he began to charge balls, dive, and actually play hops instead of defending from his heels.
In game action, nothing stands out on defense which would make me think Marte’s future there is doomed. Don’t view this as a ringing endorsement however as he has plenty of work to do to project as an even average big league third baseman. Marte has a strong arm, acceptable hands, and charges slow rollers well. Where things go wrong is when Marte rushes to make close plays as he’s prone to errant throws. Prior to his injury, he had begun to slow the game down which was a very good sign.
Speed: A below average runner, speed simply is not a part of Marte’s game. At times, he seems to be running in quicksand.
Finally due a promotion heading into 2011, Marte should open at third base in Port St. Lucie hoping to build on a decent, albeit injury-shortened year in Savannah. People forget Marte is still only 19 and his first 700+ plate appearances as a member of the Sand Gnats were as a 17-18 year old. Count me as one who needed that reminder as just writing this report forced me to me to really reflect on my feelings towards him as a former top-100 in some circles who has already been labeled a disappointment. Is Jefry Marte a surefire big leaguer? No, but he did make significant strides in 2010 and has somewhat redeemed himself as a prospect.
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Great stuff as always, Mike. Now all we’ve gotta do is clone you a few times so my fellow Met fans and I can have this depth of scouting coverage in the International, Eastern, Florida State, NY-Penn, Appy, and Gulf Coast leagues, too.
I appreciate the support. Why do clones? I’d love to get to the point where I could cover every Mets minor league team myself. That would mean I was able to do this for a living. Make sure you check out the scouting service. I’m almost positive I’ll be covering plenty of Savannah and a little Buffalo in 2011.
excellent post, as usual…
Thanks Mack. Much appreciated!
Mike, you and I both know this kid has to be moved out of the infield…. do you think that will begin in 2011?
Hey Mack, I know you saw Marte quite a bit as well and know Marte staying at 3B is an iffy proposition. However, Toby Hyde was the first to really point out that I needed to take a closer look at Marte’s defense and he was right. He was much better there in 2010 than in 2009 which is progress. As long as he continues to make progress, I don’t think they are going to move him.
Problem is the Mets have a logjam at 3B in the lower minors. In addition to Marte, they have Aderlin Rodriguez and Brian Harrison, who quietly had a real good year at Brooklyn. None of them are ready for AA, so one of the three will probably have to play elsewhere in 2011. Harrison (who I don’t know much about), and Marte might be able to stick at third, but it sounds like Aderlin will inevitably have to move across the diamond at some point. Perhaps they should just move Aderlin to first now?
Hey Matt,
I saw some of Harrison late in the season and he’s not in Marte or Aderlin’s league. Let’s put it this way. After seeing a few Harrison at bats, I didn’t feel the need to film him unlike Albert Cordero who caught my eye almost immediately.
As for Aderlin and Marte, neither guy is going to really push the other one at this point. Aderlin will settle in in Savannah while Marte should be the 3B in Port. St. Lucie. If anything, where Marte will have a hard time is if/when Flores is moved off of SS because 3B will probably be his next stop. Ultimately, any log jam is a great thing to have as you can deal from it at some point. The only time I don’t think it’s beneficial is in the case of catchers IE Montero/Romine who wound up splitting innings at an early age when either could have used a full season’s work.
Well to be fair Harrison WAS nursing a shoulder strain during his brief 5-game stop at Savannah. He’s doesn’t have the potential of the other 2 but I wouldn’t overlook him, he’s an underrated prospect.
As far as the logjam, I agree that Aderlin will clearly start with Savannah but that leaves the starting third base job with St. Lucie between Marte & Harrison. I’m guessing Marte gets the first shot based on the aforementioned long-term potential as well as the fact that Harrison possesses the kind of athleticism and footspeed that would allow for smooth transition to an OF role. Ironically, that same footspeed is also the same reason why Harrison is the only one of the 3 who would be a sure bet right now to stick at third long-term. But again he doesn’t have quite the offensive potential as Marte who is 3 years his junior – and certainly not Aderlin – so he’ll probably shift.
The problem is that despite his improved glovework in ’10, Marte still made 23 errors in only 82 games. And given Harrison’s rep as a good defender at the hot corner, it’s tough to just hand it over to Marte when Harrison is a pretty decent prospect in his own right. And what if Marte starts the season slowly – as he is prone to – and is booting balls left and right meanwhile Harrison’s third base development is wasted in RF? Definitely a tough call.
St. Lucie is going to be stacked next year, with (probably) Vaughn, Den Dekker, Puello in the OF and (probably) Marte, Flores, Shields, and Harrison in the infield. Playing time is going to be a battle!
Of that group, Den Dekker, Puello, Marte, and Shields should definitely be in St. Lucie. If the organization feels Vaughn is ready to handle a decent breaking ball, then he should join them as well. I’m not sure where Harrison fits right now, but he’s DEFINITELY the odd man out when compared to Aderlin, Marte, or even Flores sliding over to third base. If I had to guess on Harrison, he will be in Savannah playing a 1B/3B/DH role. Maybe he gets at bats everyday, but he’s going to have to shift around some a little like Josh Satin did in 2009. The only difference being that Satin played some 2B as well. As for Flores, I can see him opening up in St. Lucie and then being promoted as soon as it gets warm in Binghamton. Flores spent half a year proving he could hit at the A+ level already so I don’t see him spending a ton of time there.
Hi Rob,
Sorry for taking so long to reply. I’ve been moving and am just not catching up on things. When looking at Harrison, the comparison starts and pretty much ends with the age of the prospects. After the 2009 season, a scout really put it into perspective for me using Jefry Marte as an example. For all intensive purposes, Marte’s .233/.279/.338 line was a disaster when comparing the raw statistics against the league average. At the time, Marte was 17-18 however or the age of a high school senior. How many high school seniors could play 100+ games vs. players the age of juniors and seniors in college and do well? Marte’s 2010 was at the same age as a college freshman and pretty much the equivalent to a star level college season. Harrison put up good numbers and has some athleticism, but his not being young for the league makes his stats much less impressive. He did as much as he could to raise his profile within the organization, but the future at third base in the organization is a battle between Marte, Flores, and Aderlin. Harrison is on the outside looking in, and probably has a really bad view since he’s a few blocks away.