The Mets have promoted right-handed pitching prospect Robert Gsellman from High-A St. Lucie to Double-A Binghamton and sent fellow right-handed pitching prospect John Gant down from Binghamton to St. Lucie, per Lynn Worthy. The 21-year-old Gsellman has been excellent this year in the Florida State League, posting a 1.75 ERA in eight starts for the St. Lucie Mets with 6.5 strikeouts, 1.9 walks, and 0.2 home runs allowed per nine innings.
Gsellman joined us for a chat with the community here at Amazin' Avenue last fall and has caught the eye of Jeff Moore of Baseball Prospectus, who wrote him up recently and talked about him on a recent episode of Amazin' Avenue Audio. Among other things in his report, Moore writes:
Gsellman should fit nicely in the middle of a big league rotation, and even if the change-up never reaches its average potential, the curveball gives him a weapon to combat left-handed hitters.
Gsellman ranked 15th on our list of the Mets' top twenty-five prospects for 2015. At the time, Rob Castellano wrote:
Gsellman is as solid a mid-tier pitching prospect as you're going to find. The 21-year-old prep product has filled out his sturdy, 6'4", 200 lbs frame nicely, adding a few ticks to a fastball that still works in the low-90s but now reaches 94 MPH without maxing out. His advanced command of that pitch, along with a surprisingly polished change-up allowed him to breeze through his first taste of full-season baseball. He even made a strong debut in Advanced-A -- though Double-A competition will likely be the true test of his mettle (read, developing curveball). In short, the surprisingly robust combination of size, velocity, secondary stuff, and command makes him one of the (relatively) lower risk pitching prospects in the system, despite a lower-rotation profile.
As for the 22-year-old Gant, he excelled for the Savannah Sand Gnats as a 21-year-old last year. Assigned to Binghamton to start this season, he struggled with walks and had a 4.75 ERA in seven starts, though it's not hard to imagine him getting another shot there if he straightens out the control part of things in St. Lucie.