A multi-sport athlete who also played football as well as baseball at Springboro High School in Springboro Ohio, Andrew Joseph “A.J.” Ewing really stood out on the diamond. A natural right-hander whose father had him learn how to swing from the left side as a kid, Ewing quickly began standing out not just as compared to his little league teammates, but also as compared to fellow travel ball and high school players. He earned All-Conference First Team honors in his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons, earned All-Southwestern Ohio Conference honors in 2022 thanks to a .386 batting average to go along with 4 home runs, and was named Great Western Ohio Conference Player of the Year in 2023 after winning the triple crown, hitting .464 with 4 home runs and 37 RBI.
Overview
Name: A.J. Ewing
Position: OF
Born: 08/10/2004 (Age 21 season in 2026)
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 160 lbs.
Bats/Throws: L/R
Acquired: 2023 MLB Draft, 4th Round (Springboro High School, Ohio)
2025 Stats: 18 G, 65 AB, .400/506/.615, 26 H, 3 2B, 4 3B, 1 HR, 15 BB, 10 K, 14/16 SB, .455 BABIP (Single-A) / 78 G, 299, .288/.387/.388, 86 H, 16 2B, 4 2B, 2 HR, 46 BB, 66 K, 44/51 SB, .361 BABIP (High-A) / 28 G, 121 AB, .339/.371/.430, 41 H, 7 2B, 2 3B, 0 HR, 7 BB, 29 K, 12/14 SB, .432 BABIP (Double-A)
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Ewing had a commitment to the University of Alabama but forwent it when he was drafted by the Mets the free agent compensation round of the 2023 MLB Draft, the 134th overall pick gained when Jacob deGrom signed with the Texas Rangers. The two sides agreed to a $675,000 signing bonus, roughly $200,000 above the MLB-assigned slot value of $483,000, and the promising outfielder became a professional. He was assigned to the FCL Mets to close out the summer and appeared in 7 games, hitting .286/.524/.357 in 14 at-bats with 1 double, 1 stolen base in as many attempts, and 5 walks to 6 strikeouts.
He remained in the complex when the 2024 season began and got off to a hot start. In 19 games for the FCL Mets, he hit .254/.422/.571 with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 5 home runs, 5 stolen bases in 6 attempts, and 19 walks to 22 strikeouts. He was promoted to the St. Lucie Mets in June and remained there for the rest of the season, hitting .228/.345/.344 in 71 games with 10 doubles, 2 triples, 5 home runs, 8 stolen bases in 13 attempts, and drew 44 walks to 87 strikeouts. All in all, he appeared in 90 games in 2024, hitting .233/.361/.390 with 13 doubles, 3 triples, 10 home runs, 13 stolen bases in 19 attempts and drew 63 walks to 109 walks.
He began the 2025 season in St. Lucie, but the 20-year-old did not stay there long. In 18 games, he hit .400/.506/.615 with 3 doubles, 4 triples, 1 home run, 14 stolen bases in 16 attempts, and drew 15 walks to 10 strikeouts, earning a promotion to High-A Brooklyn at the end of April. Ewing hit the ground running in Coney Island and thrived where many players- especially left-handed hitters- have trouble. In 88 games for the Cyclones, Ewing hit .288/.387/.388 with 16 doubles, 4 triples, 2 home runs, 44 stolen bases in 51 attempts, and drew 46 walks to 66 strikeouts. He was promoted to Double-A Binghamton in mid-August and finished the 2025 season there, hitting .339/.371/.430 in 28 games with 7 doubles, 2 triples, 12 stolen bases in 14 attempts, and drew 7 walks to 29 strikeouts. All in all, Ewing hit a combined .315/.401/.429 in 124 games between Single-A, High-A, and Double-A, hitting 26 doubles, 10 triples, 3 home runs, stealing 70 bases in 81 attempts, and drawing 68 walks to 105 strikeouts.
Ewing stands square at the plate, slightly crouched, holding his hands high and wrapping his bat behind his head at 9:30. As compared to 2024, Ewing is opened up at the plate a little more and has his hands a bit lower. He swings with a slight leg lift or toe tap timing mechanism and a minimal load and weight transfer. Ewing swings with intent, getting every iota of power from his 6’0”, 175-pound frame and average bat speed. The 20-year-old certainly has room to continue growing and adding muscle mass, something that he has dedicated himself towards doing this off-season, but even without, he is still capable of making surprisingly loud contact with his long, whippy strike. In his 71 games with the St. Lucie Mets in 2024, where publicly available statcast data exists, he registered multiple 100+ MPH exit velocity readings, averaging 88 MPH and peaking at 108 MPH. In his 18 games at the beginning of the season, he once again recorded multiple 100+ MPH readings, with an average of 90.6 MPH and a peak of 108.7 MPH.
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The outfielder makes excellent swing decisions, not just relative to his youth and experience, but in general as well. He posted a 15.8% walk rate and 15.6% strikeout rate in his 96 combined games with St. Lucie and Brooklyn before bottoming out in his first taste of Double-A baseball, posting a 5.3% walk rate and 22.0% strikeout rate with the Rumble Ponies. While his numbers did trend in the wrong direction upon his promotion from Single-A St. Lucie to High-A Brooklyn, Ewing is too good of a hitter to for such a drastic drop in walk rate to be indicative of a complete breakdown of his approach and eye as opposed to a small sample size at the end of long season in which he was one of the youngest players to play in the league. His increase in strike rate, however, may reflect a legitimate negative trend, as he showed weakness against breaking balls both in and out of the zone in Single-A and High-A, something likely exploited further by the more advanced pitchers in Double-A.
Ewing uses the entire field, pulling the ball at a 40.8% rate, going back up the middle at a 21.2% rate, and going to the opposite field at a 38.0% rate last season, numbers most identical to his 2024 season, which saw him going back up the middle a little more and going to the opposite field less. When combined with his 31.6% line drive rate, 40.3% groundball rate, and 28.2% flyball rate, it quickly becomes apparent where the young outfielder has room to improve. The majority of Ewing’s power is to his left side, so pulling and lifting the ball more would increase his potential power output from below-average to fringe-average.
Power is not Ewing’s carrying tool, though; speed is. The 20-year-old is one of the fastest sprinters in the system. Regularly posting plus speeds out of the box, a large preponderance of Ewing’s 114 singles were manufactured, the result of him busting out of the box. His 70 stolen bases were most in the Mets minor league system in 2025, 20 more than fellow speedster Nick Morabito in just six more games. His 86% success rate was also third-best among any player with 30 or more stolen bases in 2025, behind Boston Baro and his 93% success rate and D’Andre Smith and his 91%.
Ewing’s speed is also an asset on defense. Drafted as a shortstop and still technically listed as one, Ewing spent the majority of the 2025 season in center field, playing 76 games there. He also appeared in 15 games as a right fielder, 12 as a left fielder, and played 19 games at second base, but center is undoubtedly where he profiles best. In 2024, Ewing was much newer to the outfield and relied more on his speed to compensate for a lack of finesse, but in 2025, he was showing much improved reads of the ball of the bat and better routes to it. He closes in on the ball well, is exceptionally surehanded, and gets rid of the ball quickly and accurately with an average-to-above-average arm. With further improvements, Ewing has the potential to be a legitimate average-to-above-average defensive center fielder.
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2026 Mets Top 25 Prospect List
7) Jacob Reimer
8) Ryan Clifford
9) Will Watson
10) Jack Wenninger
11) Mitch Voit
12) Jonathan Santucci
13) Elian Peña
14) Zach Thornton
15) Nick Morabito
16) R.J. Gordon
17) Chris Suero
18) Dylan Ross
19) Ryan Lambert
20) Antonio Jimenez
21) Edward Lantigua
22) Eli Serrano III
23) Randy Guzman
24) Daiverson Gutierrez
25) Boston Baro
