Prince of Queens Prospect Weekly: Hagenman Deceptive at Syracuse, Wenninger Hits a Rough Patch
By Olivia Reed ·
Prince of Queens Prospect Weekly covers the last 7 days of action for the Mets farm system.
Hagenman's Crossfire Act Keeps Playing at Triple-A
Justin Hagenman (AAA, RHP, Rank: 46) delivered four innings against International League competition this week, allowing just two hits and one earned run while generating eight swinging misses on 61 pitches. He walked nobody. The strikeout total was modest at two, but the contact he did surrender was largely soft, and the 8.0% walk rate he has carried through 14 innings at Syracuse this season speaks to a pitcher who fills the zone with conviction. His season ERA across all levels sits at 3.47 in 23.1 combined innings, with a 1.07 WHIP that undersells how little damage most opposing lineups have done when he is on. Over his last 30 days at Triple-A, he owns a 3.93 ERA in 18.1 innings with a 0.93 WHIP, numbers that reflect the contact-suppression profile rather than a swing-and-miss one.
The carrying tool here is not the fastball, which sits 93-95, or any single pitch, but the delivery itself. The extreme release point, low slot, and crossfire action create deception that plays well above the raw grades on the arsenal, particularly against right-handed hitters. A 50 command grade and a sinker-cutter combination that profiles off the arm slot give him enough to work through a lineup once without getting beaten by sequencing. His 26.1% whiff rate for the season is functional rather than bat-missing, and the 15.2% strikeout rate confirms that misses are not the primary weapon. What Hagenman does is throw strikes, keep the ball in the yard at a reasonable clip, and let the slot do its work. The long-reliever projection fits the profile, and a 29-year-old with this consistency at Triple-A and a prior MLB cup of coffee provides the depth arm a contending roster cycles through the shuttle. I'd bet on him getting another look in Queens before October closes.
Wenninger's Command Goes Sideways in a Tough Syracuse Outing
Jack Wenninger (AAA, RHP, Rank: 6) had a week to forget. In 1.2 innings against Triple-A hitters, he allowed six hits and five earned runs while walking two and throwing only 21 of 52 pitches for strikes. The command was simply not there: a 40.4% strike rate in any sample is a red flag, and against upper-level lineups that punish mistakes, the results followed immediately. The rough outing pushed his season numbers to a 4.54 ERA in 115 innings at Triple-A, with a 13.3% walk rate across 511 batters faced. The walk number is the part that carries forward into any major-league projection conversation, because the 2025 version of Wenninger posted a 7.6% walk rate over 135 innings at Double-A while generating a 2.92 ERA. The gap between those two seasons is real and it centers on command.
The stuff has not gone anywhere. A four-seamer sitting 95-98 with above-average ride from a high slot, paired with a 65-grade changeup that generates a 30.1% whiff rate for the season, gives him two genuine weapons. The splitter is the carrying pitch, a mid-80s offering with pronounced downward fade that produces swings and misses in and below the zone against both sides of the plate. The problem is that the fastball command has backed up from Double-A levels, and when the release drifts, he ends up in hitter-favorable counts where the changeup gets hunted and the slider stays flat. Over his last 30 days, the walk rate sits at 13.0% and the ERA is 7.42 in 13.1 innings. A number-four starter projection is still defensible given the arsenal depth and his age at 24, but the command regression needs to stabilize before that ceiling looks secure rather than theoretical.
Quick Hits
- Jefferson Rojas (AAA, SS, Rank: 4) · went 3-for-20 with a homer and three RBI across 20 plate appearances. The strikeout total climbed to five in that span, and his 27.6% K rate at Triple-A is a step up from the 17.8% he posted at Double-A Binghamton. The power is real: 27 combined home runs in 554 plate appearances this season across two Double-A stops and his brief Syracuse stay is a figure that blows past the 50 power grade on his scouting profile. He is a contact bat first, with a 55 hit tool and a compact right-handed swing, and the last 30 days at the Double-A level showed a .642 slugging mark with eight home runs in 88 plate appearances. The Triple-A adjustment is something to watch, especially against sharper breaking-ball pitchers who can exploit his vulnerability down and away, but one week of growing pains does not erase what he built in Binghamton all summer.
- Gary Gill Hill (AAA, RHP, Rank: 14) · was activated from the seven-day injured list on September 21 after missing time following his last appearance on September 6. No game logs have come in yet since the activation, so there is nothing to evaluate on the field, but his return is notable given the strong debut he made at Syracuse earlier this month: five innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts in his first Triple-A appearance after posting a 3.76 ERA over five outings at Double-A Binghamton. The injury diagnosis was not confirmed, so the health picture stays open. Keep an eye on the rotation schedule to see where he slots in for his next Triple-A start.
- Cameron Weston (AAA, RHP, Rank: 32) · got a brief taste of the big leagues this week, recalled by the Mets on September 17 and optioned back to Syracuse two days later. His Syracuse numbers this year tell the story of a reclamation arm that found something: a 1.42 ERA in 6.1 innings with 10 strikeouts and one walk after arriving from Baltimore's system. The Norfolk numbers from earlier in the season were a different story entirely, but the Mets clearly liked what they saw in his brief time at Syracuse enough to give him a quick look.