According to Ken Rosenthal and Jeff Passan, Mets minor league OF Cesar Puello and IF-OF Jordany Valdespin have agreed to accept a 50-game ban for their connection to the Biogenesis clinic.

Puello had been linked to Biogenesis in the past, so his punishment is no surprise. But Valdespin was never mentioned in any previous report.

So Valdespin’s tumultuous summer just keeps getting worse.

Puello was enjoying the best season of his career this year, batting .328/.405/.550 with 16 home runs and 73 RBI for the Double-A Binghamton Mets, but now it appears his season is over. It will be interesting to see how the Mets handle him going forward.

Apparently, whatever Valdespin took didn’t kick in until he was demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas at the All-Star Break. Jordany was raking to the tune of a .466/.533/.759 slash with 3 home runs and 24 RBI in 67 plate appearances. While with the major league club, Valdespin was batting only .188.

With ten days before pitchers and Molinas report, let’s look at who might be the PSL “phenom”.

Nearly every spring training, there is one youngster who tears it up, or lights up the radar gun, and performs so overwhelmingly impressively that we fans are convinced we’ve seen the next Mets superstar … or at least, an All-Star. It’s that player who proves the philosophy of “hope springs eternal”, or “spring training hopes are eternal”, or something like that.

In the recent past, the “phenoms” of spring training have included Lastings Milledge, Fernando Martinez, Brian Bannister, and Ambiorix Burgos, among others. Sometimes — like Dwight Gooden — the phenoms pan out. Other times — like Gary Rajsich — things don’t quite work out so well once the regular season begins.

Considering that the Mets are entering a rebuilding year centered around their youth, one would think that this is a good opportunity for at least one “phenom” to emerge. Who might that be?

The best guesses are Jordany Valdespin, Reese Havens, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Matt Harvey, Jeurys Familia, and Zack Wheeler. But those are easy, right? OK, I’ll pick a few “no-names” to throw in the mix: Kai Gronauer, Zach Lutz, Matt Den Dekker, and Cesar Puello. Those last four have no pressure on them, not much in the way of expectations, and nothing to lose, so my bet is that they’ll be aggressive, feel loose, and as a result have a good shot at gaining spring training stardom.

What say you? Who do you think will establish himself as the “phenom” in Port St. Lucie this spring? And what phenoms do you remember from spring trainings past? Answer in the comments.

With summer closing and my second year of college approaching, I picked up another job. This job is on a farm. The description says I must weed and harvest. So I’ll do the same with the Mets, as I take a look “on the farm” at some of the Mets prospects (or weeds — it depends on your perception).

NOTE: This article was written by Matt Himelfarb

Like most Mets fans, I was a bit dismayed when I first heard that the Brewers acquired Zack Greinke. For one, I have always had a soft spot for Greinke, who is nothing short of an inspiration to me. See, by all accounts, Greinke’ social skills are like a cross between McLovin and Brian from The Breakfast Club. Yet, the dude is a Cy Young caliber pitcher, and his social phobia did not stop him from hitting on Emily Kuchar junior year. I have been blogging since I was 12, which as you can imagine has done wonders for my social skills. Hence, Greinke is a boss man in my book.

What really irked me, however, was that it appeared the Brewers acquired Greinke for a pittance. I was vaguely familiar with all the players the Royals received: outfielder Lorenzo Cain, shortstop Alcides Escobar, pitcher Jake Odorizzi, and pitcher Jeremy Jeffress. An intriguing crop of young players, yes, but it hardly struck me as a Greinke-worthy package.

Upon closer examination, however, an equivalent deal for the Mets would have looked something like