Ryan Clifford crushes seventh homer for Triple-A Syracuse
Ryan Clifford’s seventh homer pushed his Syracuse line to .800 OPS and raised a bigger Mets question: is the 22-year-old first baseman nearing Queens?
Ryan Clifford’s seventh homer was more than another ball leaving the yard in Syracuse. It was another sign that the Mets’ No. 4 prospect is starting to look less like a name for the future and more like a first baseman the organization may have to plan around soon.
On May 10 for Triple-A Syracuse, Clifford reached base three times and launched a 400-foot solo homer to deep right, his seventh of the season. At that point, the 22-year-old left-handed hitter was batting .252 with seven homers, 21 RBI and an .800 OPS, a line that looks a lot more like a corner-infield prospect forcing the issue than a player merely collecting reps.
That matters because Clifford did not open the year this hot. He was homerless through the first three weeks of the 2026 season and went through a 66-plate-appearance drought before breaking through in Syracuse’s April 18 doubleheader against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He homered in both games that day, and the turnaround showed up immediately in the numbers, lifting his OPS from .548 to .767. The surge has not been a fluke spike so much as a correction from a rough start.
For the Mets, the question is no longer whether Clifford has power. It is whether the power is becoming consistent enough to put him on a real major-league timeline. Clifford, born July 20, 2003, in Raleigh, North Carolina, was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 11th round in 2022 and came to the Mets on Aug. 1, 2023 in the Justin Verlander deal alongside Drew Gilbert. MLB Pipeline has long described him as one of the system’s more advanced power-hitting prospects and even a potential future Mets first baseman, which is exactly why every extra homer matters.
His 2025 season already hinted at a real breakout. He posted a career-high 29 home runs, and MLB Pipeline noted a 148 wRC+ and 24 homers in 105 games during his time at Double-A. That kind of production, followed by a stronger start at Triple-A, changes the conversation fast. Clifford is no longer just a prospect curiosity with raw power. He is beginning to look like an internal answer the Mets might actually be able to use.
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