Dom, Amed all there is

DOM Smith hasn’t looked quite ready for major-league pitching since his call-up two weeks ago, and scouts have noticed that his swing looks a bit long at this level, making him vulnerable to hard stuff inside, so now it’s up to him to prove he can adjust. On Wednesday night he did just that, turning on a 95-mph inside fastball from Jake Barrett in the Mets’ 4-2 victory over the Diamondbacks. For Smith it was his third home run in 44 plate appearances — a good sign considering power has been the biggest question about his long-range potential.

In any case, it’s crucial for the Mets that Smith deliver as a highly touted prospect, as he and Amed Rosario are the only players coming out of the minors who have a real chance of making an impact in filling the many holes going into 2018.

In that sense, the Mets’ farm system is coming under scrutiny these days, as the upper levels in the minors appear to be scarce on blue-chippers or even solid major-league prospects.

With Rosario and Smith in the majors, in fact, Jim Callis of MLBpipeline.com said you have to look to the lower levels of the Mets’ system for their top prospects.

Callis cited pitchers Justin Dunn and David Peterson, the first-round picks of 2016 and ’17, and Andres Gimenez, an 18-year-old shortstop from Venezuela, as their best minor-leaguers, and none of them are close to reaching the majors.

As such, the Mets’ system doesn’t get high marks these days. “We only rank the top 10, so there’s no number,’’ said Callis. “And I still consider Rosario and Smith as prospects until they have more time in the majors, but if you take them out, the Mets have to be in the bottom third of all the farm systems.”

It wasn’t so long ago that the system was brimming with the pitching prospects that were largely responsible for getting the Mets to the 2015 World Series, but even if there’s an inevitable cyclical nature to player development, that doesn’t fully account for the lack of top prospects. Simply put, the Mets haven’t produced enough talent from the draft during the Sandy Alderson regime.

If Smith proves to be their everyday first baseman for the next several years, then they’re actually doing OK with first-round picks, even though Brandon Nimmo and Gavin Cecchini, the first-rounders taken in Alderson’s first two years on the job, look more like misses than hits at this point.

Both are on the major-league roster, but only because of openings created by the Mets’ sell-off of veterans, and the consensus among scouts is that both are more likely to be backups than starters, Nimmo as an outfielder and Cecchini as a second baseman. On the other hand, Michael Conforto has worked out nicely as the 10th pick in 2014, and it has to be noted that Michael Fulmer was a first-round sandwich pick in 2011, 44th overall.

Fulmer has emerged as one of the top young pitchers in baseball, but for the Tigers because Alderson traded him for Yoenis Cespedes in 2015 — and you can’t fault him for that. As it turned out, however, the Mets made a mistake in signing Michael Cuddyer as a free agent, costing them a first-round pick in 2015 for one year of a player on the decline.

Meanwhile, it will be awhile before anyone knows if the Mets were right about Dunn, a college pitcher from Boston College, and Peterson, the 6-foot-6 lefty from Oregon, drafted in June.

In any case, it’s a bit of a mixed bag for the first-rounders, but Callis said that if Smith becomes a “solid regular,” then Alderson’s success rate is comparable to the industry average, especially counting Fulmer.

“What they haven’t had are those middle and late round guys that you need to hit on,’’ Callis said. “Like the Red Sox getting a Mookie Betts in the fifth round. Or like the Mets got with (Jacob) deGrom in the ninth round. You need to find a few of those types over several years because nobody hits on all their first-rounders.”

The Mets drafted deGrom in 2010, the final year of Omar Minaya’s run as GM. In Alderson’s first year, 2011, they did hit on a couple of late-rounders — Robert Gsellman in the 13th, Seth Lugo in the 34th, and both might prove to be major factors next year and beyond.

And Wednesday night’s starter, Chris Flexen, was a 14th-round choice in 2012, but it remains to be seen if he can succeed in the big leagues.

In any case, when you scroll through the full list of draft picks since 2011, very few of the higher picks, say through the fifth round, have amounted to much so far, and the lack of prospects now looms as a problem the Mets will have to overcome by spending on free agents for next season — always an issue for this franchise.

That’s why it’s so important that Rosario, a highly touted signing out of the Dominican Republic, and Smith, the 11th pick in 2013, succeed quickly if the Mets are going to take a run at a championship again soon. couple of lapses notwithstanding, Rosario has played brilliant defense at short and showed promise offensively. Smith, as of Wednesday, was hitting .179, as pitchers have challenged him inside with fastballs. With that in mind, Terry Collins thinks the lefthanded hitter needs to change his approach a bit.

“You look at some of the balls he’s fouling off,” Collins said. “It’s nice to be able to see the ball get deep, and I know he’s a guy who sees the ball and hits a lot to leftcenter. But you show these pitchers you want to hit the ball the other way, and they’re going to start pounding you inside to see if you can handle it.

“Once in a while I want to see him jump somebody early, hit the ball out front, and that will force pitchers to move the ball around more, and he’ll get some pitches he can drive. He did exactly that tonight.”

Collins said he’s confident Smith will continue to make the adjustment, but scouts worry the swing is a bit long to handle those inside fastballs without having to guess or cheat to get to them. Time will tell. For the Mets, there’s an awful lot riding on it.

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