What Mets are adding in A.J. Ewing: Takeaways from top prospect promotion

The Mets have been searching for a spark to ignite their lifeless lineup through this first quarter of the season.

After weeks of lineup changes, vets claimed off waivers and everything in between, the Mets are taking a different and more aggressive approach this week.

New York is calling top prospect A.J. Ewing up from Triple-A Syracuse ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Tigers, a source confirmed to NJ.com on Monday night. Will Sammon of The Athletic was first to report Ewing’s promotion.

Ewing is ranked as the Mets’ second-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, a speedster with a knack for spraying the ball to all fields from the left side. The 21-year-old has experience at all three outfield positions as well as second base.

Similar to the Mets deciding to break camp with fellow homegrown top prospect Carson Benge this spring, Ewing is making the leap to the big leagues with very little Triple-A experience. Ewing has only 12 games in Triple-A under his belt — he was promoted to Syracuse after a scalding-hot start in Double-A Binghamton late last month.

Across Double-A and Triple-A to begin this year, Ewing was slashing .339/.447/.514 (.961 OPS) with 17 stolen bases and 25 runs scored in 30 games. Last year, as Ewing climbed three levels from Single-A St. Lucie up to Binghamton, the lefty hit .315/.401/.429 with 70 stolen bases and 87 runs in 124 games.

Mix those numbers together and Ewing is batting .320 with a .854 OPS and 148 wRC+ since the beginning of last season. In that span, only three players in all of Minor League Baseball have more steals than Ewing (87).