Five of New York Mets’ top prospects to begin season with Columbia Fireflies

Five of the New York Mets’ top-10 prospects will begin the season with the Columbia Fireflies, giving the club its most talented roster to begin the season since they moved back to South Carolina.

The club released its opening day roster and held its annual fan fest Sunday.

Infielders Ronny Mauricio (No. 3), Mark Vientos (No. 4) and Shervyen Newton (No. 7) and impressive pitchers Simeon Woods-Richardson (No. 8) and Thomas Szapucki (No. 10) are ranked in the top 10 by Baseball America in the Mets’ organization.

Mauricio was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 3 prospect available on the 2017 international market and was signed by the Mets out of the Dominican Republic for $2.1 million.

Vientos (2017) and Woods-Richardson (2018), both teenagers, are the Mets’ two most-recent second-round selections and played at rookie ball last season. Vientos hit .287 with 11 home runs and 52 RBIs in 60 games at Kingsport while Woods-Richardson finished the 2018 season with a 1.56 ERA in seven outings split between Kingsport and the Gulf Coast League Mets.

Pitchers Chris Viall and Christian James are the remaining two Mets prospects on the roster. The seven prospects are the most for a Fireflies opening-day roster.

Joining Viall are five other former Fireflies including pitchers Luc Rennie – who set the Fireflies single-game strikeout record on July 22. Szapucki played for the Fireflies in 2017 and missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Two former Southeastern Conference players, pitcher Andrew Mitchell (Auburn) and Brian Sharp (Missouri), also are on the roster.

Columbia hosts Charleston for Opening Day at 7:05 p.m. Thursday. The game kicks off a seven-game homestand for the Fireflies.

Columbia Fireflies roster

Pitchers (13): Jose Butto, Christian James, Andrew Mitchell, Dedniel Nunez, Billy Oxford, Darwin Ramos, Luc Rennie, Thomas Szapucki, Willy Taveras, Chris Viall, Jaison Vilera, Simeon Woods-Richardson, Ezequiel Zabaleta

Catchers (2): Hayden Senger, Juan Uriarte

Infielders (6): Chase Chambers, Ronny Mauricio, Shervyen Newton, Walter Rasquin, Brian Sharp, Mark Vientos

Outfielders (4): Ranfy Adon, Anthony Dirocie, Wagner Lagrange, Jose Miguel Medina

This story was originally published March 31, 2019 at 1:41 PM.