Pitcher Zack Wheeler is shown during Las Vegas 51s practice at Cashman Field Tuesday, April 2, 2013. The 51s open the season Thursday against the RiverCats at Sacramento. This is the first year the 51s are affiliated with the Mets.
Friday, April 12, 2013 | 2 a.m.
Zack Wheeler might not be with the Las Vegas 51s for long.
The 22-year-old Wheeler, the Las Vegas pitching ace and baseball’s No. 4-ranked prospect by MLB.com, is a right-handed power pitcher who is expected to be one of the mainstays of the New York Mets rotation for years to come.
Until he gets promoted to New York, he’ll be in Triple-A with Las Vegas. The 51s’ home opener is Friday against Colorado Springs to start an eight-game home stand, and the 6-foot-4 Wheeler is expected to pitch Sunday.
He’s already logged a pair of starts during the Las Vegas eight-game road trip to open the season, struggling in both outings. He has surrendered 11 hits and six walks in 8 2/3 innings, and didn’t make it out of the fourth inning last week in his initial start of the season.
Newsday reported Thursday that part of those struggles are the result of a blister on his pitching hand.
While he was far from perfect, Wheeler showed in those two starts why Baseball America ranked him the past two seasons as the Mets organization’s top prospect. He has nine strikeouts on the season, retiring an average of one batter on strikes per inning pitched.
Wheeler will most likely be promoted to New York before the season ends. Only time will tell when that is.
“I am (ready for the big leagues). I could use some more work, but I think everyone can,” he said two weeks ago. “If I went up there right now, I think I’d do well. Stuff happens and you have to work through it.”
Wheeler isn’t the lone Las Vegas player with the potential to make a splash at the next level.
Here are the others:
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Catcher Travis d’Arnaud
Ranked as the top catching prospect by MLB.com, d’Arnaud begins his second season with the 51s — he was traded in the offseason to the Mets from the Toronto Blue Jays, which was previously affiliated with Las Vegas — and could also be promoted to the big leagues in the near future.
He’s already proven to be an elite minor league hitter.
Last year, he tore the cover off the ball in Las Vegas, batting . 333 with 16 home runs and 52 RBIs before suffering a left knee injury that ended his season.
In 2011, d’Arnaud posted a .311 batting average in Double-A New Hampshire of the Blue Jays organization with 21 home runs and 78 RBIs.
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Infielder Josh Satin
Satin has started the season at a hitting tear to lead the 51s in virtually every offensive category.
He’s hit safely in all eight Las Vegas games, posting 16 hits in 32 at-bats for a .500 average with three home runs and nine RBIs. He’s posted more than two hits in seven of eight games, picking up where he left off in spring training with a .455 average in 16 at-bats for the Mets.
The 28-year-old Satin has played 16 big-league games the past two seasons with the Mets, hitting .192 in 26 plate appearances.
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Second baseman Wilmer Flores
The 21-year-old Flores is a slick-fielding middle infielder who is playing his first season in Triple-A, starting his professional career in 2007 at age 16 when he was signed out of the Venezuela.
Three times, he’s been ranked by Baseball America as one of its top 100 prospects. In 2009 and 2012, he played for the World team in the All-Star Futures Games.
Last year, he batted .300 with 18 home runs and 75 RBIs in Double-A.
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Infielder Zach Lutz
Lutz had a cup of coffee last year with the Mets, logging 11 plate appearances in seven games. The infielder was a fifth-round pick of the Mets in 2007 and has been on their 40-man roster since before the 2011 season.
While he has started slow this season with just five hits in 27 at-bats, the 26-year-old is a career .285 minor league hitter with 55 home runs and 208 RBIs in 352 games. Thursday, he hit a first-inning grand slam in the 51s' 14-3 victory against Fresno.
Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.
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