Billy Amick arrived in the Mets system with the kind of reputation that travels fast: loud power, big exit velocity and enough thump to make scouts lean in. The Mets knew what they were getting when they brought him over from the Twins in the A.J.
Minter deal last month. What they may not have expected was how quickly the slugging corner infielder would start turning that reputation into a nightly show.
Amick has hit 10 home runs in his first 19 games in the Mets’ system, and the latest burst came Wednesday night at Triple-A Syracuse, where he went deep twice in a three-hit effort on the road in Lehigh Valley. Before the promotion, he had already launched seven homers in 12 games with Double-A Binghamton after the trade, batting .304 with a 1.179 OPS. Since moving up to Syracuse last week, he has three home runs and an .827 OPS, even while batting .192.
For Amick, the power surge comes back to a simple approach.
“I don’t think there’s anything too crazy,” Amick said. “It’s just getting pitches to hit, and really trying to focus on your plan and sticking to that, not going away from that and sticking to what you’re good at, whether it’s hitting a certain guy’s fastball or a certain guy’s slider.”
The numbers across the full season are eye-popping. Amick ranks seventh in all of minor league baseball with 33 home runs and sixth with 99 RBI.
That kind of production makes his omission from the updated top-30 prospect lists from both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America after the trade deadline stand out. At the same time, the full picture is more complicated than the home run totals suggest. Amick has struck out 138 times this season, a 30% strikeout rate over 461 plate appearances, and the swing-and-miss is part of the package right now.
Still, the Mets aren’t looking at him as a finished product. Minor-league director of hitting Kevin Mahala said the raw power is real and the contact issue does not have to define him.
“Billy’s swing path right now is pretty geared to hit the ball very high, very hard and very far,” Mahala told NJ.com. “He has a really strong power and plate discipline skill set.
If this is as good as his is, he’ll be playing this game a very long time. We don’t have to move the needle that far in terms of the contact in order to make him a really good player.”
Double-A hitting coach Rachel Folden, who worked with Amick briefly in Binghamton before his move to Triple-A, sees the same thing.
“There’s some swing and miss to his game that I think he knows about,” Folden said, “but I think what keeps him being able to continue to drive runs in and put the ball over the fence is he takes a really good at-bat. He doesn’t chase outside of the zone and so you have to throw it over the plate to beat him. That’s a scary place to be for a lot of pitchers when you’ve got power like that standing in the batter’s box.”
There’s also the reality that Amick is still early in the process. This is his first full season in affiliated ball after injuries last summer, and he has now reached Triple-A. The Mets believe the next step is learning how to adjust when the game starts exposing the holes in his swing.
That matters because the path to the majors could open faster than expected. If Mark Vientos does not step up, or if the Mets bring in a first baseman from outside the organization this winter, Amick could find himself in the mix as a right-handed power bat at first next spring. And if he proves himself at third, he could also force his way into the conversation there.
For now, Amick is keeping the focus on the work in front of him and on getting comfortable with his new surroundings in the Mets system. He said the formula is about effort, routine and patience.
“It’s just showing up to the field every day with a plan, wanting to get better,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a certain drill or certain hitting coach that can fix any kind of problem that you have, but it definitely helps to work hard every day and just stay positive and stay confident.
The results will come if you just keep working hard. I fully believe in that.”
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