NEW YORK — The Mets knew exactly what type of power they were getting in Billy Amick when they acquired the slugging prospect from the Twins in the A.J. Minter deal last month.
That’s always been Amick’s calling card, even during his college career when he won a title with Tennessee in 2024 before getting drafted by the Twins in the second round that summer.
When Amick was dealt to the Mets, the corner infielder already had 23 home runs over 86 games with Minnesota’s Double-A affiliate.
Since his arrival in the Mets’ system, however, Amick has taken his power production to unprecedented heights.
With two more home runs on Wednesday night with Triple-A Syracuse, Amick has now swatted 10 homers in his first 19 games within the Mets’ system.
Amick went deep seven times over 12 games with Double-A Binghamton after the Minter trade, hitting .304 with a 1.179 OPS in that span. After getting promoted to Syracuse last week — factoring in Wednesday night’s three-hit, two-homer eruption on the road in Lehigh Valley — Amick has three homers and a .827 OPS while batting .192.
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When NJ.com sat down with Amick in Syracuse this past week, the 23-year-old connected his power surge to keeping it simple at the plate and letting his biggest strengths do the heavy-lifting.
“I don’t think there’s anything too crazy,” Amick said. “It’s just getting pitches to hit, and really trying to focus on your plan and sticking to that, not going away from that and sticking to what you’re good at, whether it’s hitting a certain guy’s fastball or a certain guy’s slider.”
Whatever he’s been doing has been working. Overall this season, Amick ranks seventh in all of minor league baseball with 33 home runs and sixth with 99 RBI.
It’s a small sample size since getting to the Mets, but it’s more than enough slug to make you wonder why both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America left Amick off their updated top-30 prospects rankings after the trade deadline.
Then again, as much as Amick has been flashing his prodigious power all year, he has also shown his flaws offensively.
Amick has struck out 138 times this season. That’s a 30% strikeout rate over 461 plate appearances. Looking at his production beneath the hood, Amick’s swing-and-miss tendencies stick out just as much as his elite ability to pull the ball in the air with eye-catching exit velocity numbers.
The Mets are well aware that Amick whiffs often, but minor-league director of hitting Kevin Mahala is confident that Amick can make more contact moving forward without sacrificing any of his pop.
“Billy’s swing path right now is pretty geared to hit the ball very high, very hard and very far,” Mahala told NJ.com. “He has a really strong power and plate discipline skill set. If this is as good as his is, he’ll be playing this game a very long time. We don’t have to move the needle that far in terms of the contact in order to make him a really good player.”
Double-A hitting coach Rachel Folden only worked with Amick for a brief stretch in Binghamton before his call-up to Triple-A, but she agrees.
“There’s some swing and miss to his game that I think he knows about,” Folden said, “but I think what keeps him being able to continue to drive runs in and put the ball over the fence is he takes a really good at-bat. He doesn’t chase outside of the zone and so you have to throw it over the plate to beat him. That’s a scary place to be for a lot of pitchers when you’ve got power like that standing in the batter’s box.”
Getting more reps will certainly help. Both Mahala and Folden alluded to the fact that Amick is still in the early stages of his professional career. This year is his first full season in affiliated ball due to injuries last summer and he’s now up in Triple-A. The good ones are able to make adjustments when the game exposes issues that can keep a prospect from recognizing his full potential.
So long as Amick’s strikeouts and his contact rate don’t become a glaring issue and overshadow his plus raw power — that’s what happened with Ryan Clifford this year in the Mets’ system — he’ll be positioned for big-league at-bats sooner than later. Unless Mark Vientos steps up or the Mets import a first baseman from outside the org this winter, a path to playing time as a right-handed slugger at first could be up for grabs next spring. Who knows, maybe Amick proves doubters wrong with his defense at the hot corner and distinguishes himself as a legitimate option to play third down the road as well.
In the meantime, Amick is focused on winning games and familiarizing himself with all the new faces in the Mets’ system. Asked if there’s anything that he’s working on to limit the swing and miss in his game, Amick made it clear that he’s putting in all the work necessary to take those next steps forward as a hitter.
“It’s just showing up to the field every day with a plan, wanting to get better,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a certain drill or certain hitting coach that can fix any kind of problem that you have, but it definitely helps to work hard every day and just stay positive and stay confident. The results will come if you just keep working hard. I fully believe in that.”
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