​Mets prospect Ryan Clifford has had a nightmare season in Triple-A this year. Even that feels like an understatement with just how disastrous his summer has been at the plate.The power-hitting lefty, who was considered one of the best position player prospects in the Mets’ system as recently as this spring, is batting .176 with a .617 OPS over 105 games with Syracuse this year. Strikeouts have always been a concern with Clifford’s profile offensively, but this year it’s been out of control. His 38% strikeout rate is the highest for any hitter with 200-plus plate appearances in Triple-A this season.Clifford hit rock bottom midway through last month when the Mets placed him on the development list after a five-strikeout game in Jacksonville. At that point, Clifford had one hit in his previous 41 at-bats with 26 strikeouts in that 11-game span. Go back all the way to the beginning of June and Clifford was hitting .108 with a 8 wRC+ over his previous 45 games. Yikes.As bad as the first baseman and corner outfielder has been, the Mets aren’t giving up hope that Clifford can snap out of this concerning stretch and get back to what he was doing last season. Over 139 games between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse in 2025, Clifford had a .826 OPS with 29 home runs, 12 more than any other minor leaguer in the entire organization.“Progress and development is not linear and it’s not uncommon for a kid who’s young and who’s at upper levels of minor league baseball to go through some struggles,” Mets director of hitting Kevin Mahala told NJ.com recently. “When you encounter those times of struggle, it’s imperative to make some adjustments. We think he’s capable of making those adjustments and if he does, the sky is the limit.”While it’s been harder than ever to see that vision with Clifford this summer, Thursday was an infinitesimal step in the right direction. In Clifford’s first appearance since returning from the development list, he worked two walks and then blasted a 100.7-mph run-scoring single up the middle. It was the first glimpse of what Clifford does well in a long time. His quality of contact metrics are still elite this season even with his dreadful surface-level production. The problem is that he’s not making nearly enough contact. “It’s no secret the contact has gone down quite a bit,” Mahala said. “Some of the plate discipline that he was known for has slipped. We’re really trying to get those back on track and get him back to that ’25 version, the best version of Ryan Clifford that we’ve seen.”Mahala added: “Contact rates improve significantly, maintain the plate discipline, still have all that power. You add all those things up and it’s a really special hitter.In a perfect world for the Mets, Clifford — who was acquired in the Justin Verlander trade with the Astros in 2023 — would’ve taken that step forward in his development earlier this season. With his taste of Triple-A in