Mets' Ryan Clifford: Improving with glove in outfield
Rotowire
Clifford is looking to build on the progress he made last season with his outfield defense, Tim Britton of The Athletic reports.
Specifically, the 22-year-old worked on improving his reads, jumps and first step. "We put a lot of thought into the prep step stuff, and the numbers backed up that I got better out there," Clifford said in camp this week. "I'm hoping to build on it this year as well... Just continue to try to become more explosive. I don't have the highest top speed, obviously, so the first couple steps are really important to me." Twenty of his 34 starts with Triple-A Syracuse last season came in an outfield corner, and with the Mets not yet settled on the identity of their starting right fielder, a strong showing by Clifford in spring training on both sides of the ball could give him another route to a big-league debut in 2026. His most likely future position for New York remains first base, however, and his bat could play in either spot after slashing .237/.356/.470 with 29 homers in 139 games last year between Syracuse and Double-A Binghamton.
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Mets' Ryan Clifford: Moving up to Triple-A
Rotowire
The Mets promoted Clifford from Double-A Binghamton to Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday, Pat Ragazzo of SI.com reports.
Clifford will make the jump to Syracuse after slashing .243/.355/.493 with 24 home runs and four stolen bases over 437 plate appearances in 105 games with Binghamton. Along with Clifford, fellow top prospects Jett Williams, Carson Benge and Jonah Tong will move up to Syracuse during the upcoming week.
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Mets' Ryan Clifford: Elevated to Double-A
Rotowire
The Mets promoted Clifford from High-A Brooklyn to Double-A Binghamton on Monday.
Clifford hit just .216 and posted unremarkable counting stats over his 31 games with Brooklyn (one home run, one stolen base, 13 runs and 10 RBI), but he earned the bump up to Double-A largely on the back of his discerning eye at the plate. He drew walks at a prolific 23.9 percent clip with Brooklyn, enabling him to maintain a .412 on-base percentage across 136 plate appearances. Racking up free passes has been a hallmark of Clifford's statistical profile at every stop of his professional career, but since he's limited defensively to first base and the corner outfield, he'll likely need to tap into more power at the upper levels of the minors to improve his long-term fantasy outlook by the time he hits the big leagues.
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Astros' Ryan Clifford: Quick bump to High-A
Rotowire
The Astros promoted Clifford from Single-A Fayetteville to High-A Asheville on Tuesday.
He went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in his first game in the South Atlantic League. Clifford, who received $1.26 million -- way over slot -- after the Astros selected him in the 11th round of last year's draft, hit .337 with two home runs, three steals and a 27:25 K:BB in 25 games at Single-A before getting the promotion. A bat-first player, Clifford has seen time at first base, designated hitter, right field and left field. Asheville is an incredibly hitter-friendly home park, but Clifford is now one of the youngest players (turns 20 in July) at High-A, so a strong statistical showing at this level would still be impressive despite the advantageous offensive environment.
