Ken Davidoff

Ken Davidoff

MLB

Mets, Yankees can learn from young-armed approach

OAKLAND, Calif. — While a participant in this baseball postseason, Jim Leyland is thinking just like the rest of us.

The Tigers manager watched Pirates rookie Gerrit Cole keep his team in Game 5 of the NLDS on Wednesday, although Pittsburgh ultimately fell to the Cardinals. And he, of course noticed his counterpart, A’s manager Bob Melvin, opted for freshman Sonny Gray over 40-year-old Bartolo Colon in Thursday’s winner-take-all Game 5 of the ALDS at O.co Coliseum, after Gray pitched brilliantly against the Tigers in Game 2.

“These young guys coming up …” Leyland said with admiration.

These young guys coming up are the hot topic of these playoffs. Not only Cole and Gray, but also St. Louis’ Michael Wacha and Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore. And the Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw, a five-year veteran already, is only 25.

In the first 20 postseason games of 2012, counting the two wild-card contests and 18 Division Series matchups, the average age of the starting pitchers was 28.8. Through the first 22 playoff games of 2013, which includes two wild-card contests and 20 Division Series matchups, the average age had dropped to 27.7. We’ll keep tabs on this trend as the playoffs continue.

These developments display truths about the two New York teams — the drafting of the Mets and the development of the Yankees.

In Sandy Alderson’s first amateur draft as the Mets’ general manager, 2011, the club popped Wyoming high school outfield prospect Brandon Nimmo with the 13th overall pick. On the very next selection, the Marlins took Tampa high school pitcher Jose Fernandez. And at 18, the A’s selected Gray.

Yup. Not good so far.

You of course want to give this more time. A draft deserves five years to fully marinate before you start shaking your fist and pointing fingers. Nimmo, 20, put up a .273/.397/.359 slash line with Class-A Savannah in 2013 while playing center field. The scouts with whom I’ve spoken about him are lukewarm. Maybe he’ll be an everyday player in the big leagues, maybe not.

The reality, though, is the Mets, given their financial constraints, needed to produce many extra-base hits in finding and procuring cheap talent in order to fully rebuild. Their trades of Carlos Beltran (for Zack Wheeler) and R.A. Dickey (for Travis d’Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard and others) look like potential extra-base hits. They could use more. Hence the glaringness of Nimmo’s slow climb vis-a-vis the meteoric rises of Fernandez — a strong candidate for National League Rookie of the Year — and Gray.

In the same vein, the Mets’ top draft pick of 2012, shortstop Gavin Cecchini (selected 12th overall), is on the clock a little more thanks to the success of 19th pick Michael Wacha with the Cardinals. The early reviews on Cecchini, 19, are similarly unenthusiastic.

Look, no team is going to draft perfectly. You always can point to a player drafted in the second round and beyond who proceeds to do great things and say, “The other 29 teams whiffed on him.”

That’s where development enters the picture. The Mets have developed an impressive array of pitchers, with Rafael Montero joining Wheeler and Syndergaard as high-end hurlers, along with other intriguing arms like Cory Mazzoni (second round) and left-hander Jack Leathersich (fifth); remember, you need surplus so that you have trade pieces, especially given the Mets’ hunger for hitters.

As Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner made clear in his comments to The Post’s Joel Sherman on Tuesday, he is looking at every component of the Yankees’ player development process. As he should be. It’s superficial to simply wonder why you didn’t select Player X. You also have to wonder why you aren’t producing your own Player X.

If the New York clubs are to return to the playoffs, they’ll have to cultivate their own young gems. They are the talk of the industry, and no one’s talking about the Yankees or Mets right now.