2 The Bigs

By Matt Castagna, January 31, 2025

As the price of sealed wax continues to rise, I’m here to help direct you to the “singles” market (of cards, that is). This approach is becoming the most efficient way for the new and even seasoned collector to diversify their prospect collection without spending hundreds (or thousands) on the gamble of boxes. Instead of doing the latter, I’m going to give you players that can actually make you some money, with one tenth the investment of a hobby box. With that said, I’m here to highlight those players who I’d consider to be “Bowman Bargains” during the 2025 off-season.

Bowman Bargain #2: Nick Morabito, New York Mets (Upside Score: 70) [73rd Overall]

Well, the Mets started this off-season with quite the bang. With Juan Soto now manning the outfield in Queens for the next decade, it leaves the Mets outfield prospects quite vulnerable. If I were to ask a crowd who won the 2024 Mets Developmental Hitting Prospect of the Year, I’d likely hear the names Drew Gilbert, Ryan Clifford, Luisangel Acuna or Jett Williams. To everyone’s surprise, they would all be wrong. Instead, it was a player who made waves in the lower circuit for the Mets. In Single-A, this 2023 2nd-round pick hit the ground running in his pro-debut that year. In 2024, he took an even bigger stride forward.

Let’s take a deeper dive into what outfield prospect Nick Morabito has done so far in his minor league career. In that hot start we mentioned above, Nick hit .306, with an OPS of .828 and 21 SB in his pro debut year (2023). In 2024, Nick collected 142 hits, leading to a .312 average and an .801 OPS. With his increased performance at the plate, his stolen bases tally grew as well (to 59 SB). He also dropped his K-rate to 21.5% and doubled his XBH totals (11 —> 21). If he can continue to put on muscle and build out his power profile, he can project to be a 20+ HR / 40+ SB bat. He is not only a prospect that I am keen on for the future but also one I see other teams calling the Mets for. 

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