The Mets are calling up outfield prospect A.J. Ewing from the minors, AP source says

NEW YORK (AP) — Desperate to spark a stagnant lineup, the New York Mets are calling up outfield prospect A.J. Ewing after just 12 games with Triple-A Syracuse, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Monday night.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team had not yet announced the move.

The 21-year-old Ewing will be added to the roster before Tuesday night's series opener against the Detroit Tigers at Citi Field. He was batting .326 with three doubles, a triple and four RBIs in 51 plate appearances at Syracuse. He had drawn five walks, stolen five bases and scored nine runs.

The speedy center fielder is New York's second-ranked minor league prospect behind pitcher Jonah Tong, according to MLB.com.

Luis Robert Jr., the team's opening-day center fielder, is on the injured list with a lumbar spine disk herniation. Also missing star shortstop Francisco Lindor and first baseman Jorge Polanco because of injuries, the Mets (15-25) entered Monday with the worst record in the majors and an offense that lags near the bottom in many significant statistical categories.

Ewing also has experience at second base and both corner outfield spots. He reached Double-A Binghamton last year, hitting .339 in 28 games, and batted .349 with a 1.053 OPS and 12 steals in 18 games at that level this season before getting promoted to Syracuse.

The 5-foot-10, 160-pound Ewing, a left-handed hitter, was a fourth-round draft pick by the Mets in 2023 out of Springboro High School in Ohio. The club will need to open a 40-man roster spot for him Tuesday.

The organization's decision to bring Ewing to the big leagues was first reported by The Athletic.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza watches the action on the field during the third inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza shouts at the home plate umpire during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

New York Mets' Francisco Alvarez pauses at home plate during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

New York Mets' Francisco Alvarez strikes out against Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Antonio Senzatela in the ninth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

New York Mets' Juan Soto grimaces after a swinging strike during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

BANGKOK (AP) — Vietnam is increasingly using broadly written laws to arrest activists, dissidents and others that authorities consider a threat to the Communist party's rule, according to a new analysis released Monday by a human rights group.

The 88 Project, which focuses on rights issues in Vietnam, documented 56 such arrests in 2025, the third consecutive year of increases and double the number in 2022. The report includes only arrests where the defendant could be identified by name and the case tracked, and the actual numbers are believed to be much higher, said Ben Swanton, co-director of the group.

The report says the country under leader To Lam “routinely weaponizes criminal law” to quash dissent. To Lam, the country’s former top security official who has served as general secretary of the Communist Party since 2024, was also elected president earlier this year.

The arrests are largely driven by fears of an uprising against the leadership in a so-called “color revolution,” like the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, or the 1986 Yellow Revolution in the Philippines, according to the report.

It is a fear shared by the Communist Party in neighboring China, which has been accused of using similar tactics to stifle critics. Though competing maritime claims have led to confrontations between the two countries and a tense diplomatic relationship at times, China and Vietnam were able to agree earlier this year to together “prioritize political security and enhance efforts to prevent and resist color revolutions,” the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

“With the ascendancy of To Lam, the country has become a literal police state that tolerates no dissent,” Swanton said.

“This represents a serious regression from the period of relative openness in the 2010s when some dissent was tolerated and civil society groups were able to engage in policy activism.”

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the findings of the report.

The report found that authorities are relying increasingly on Article 331 of Vietnam's penal code, which makes it a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison to “abuse democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state.”

Previously little used, “authorities have enlarged the scope and application of Article 331 so that it reaches further into society, beyond human rights and democracy dissidents ... to all those who voice any grievance with state or local Communist Party and government officials,” New York-based Human Rights Watch wrote in a report last year.

“The Vietnamese authorities’ increased use of Article 331 is a little known facet of the government’s expanding crackdown on ordinary people who are seeking to use social media and other peaceful means to publicly raise important social issues, including religious freedom, land rights, rights of Indigenous people, and government and Communist Party corruption,” Human Rights Watch wrote.

Among those arrested under Article 331 last year were three men behind the YouTube channel “Nguoi Da Tin' — The Messenger — on allegations that videos they uploaded were ”distorted content" that violated the statute, The 88 Project reported.

The report provides details of every arrest identified as politically related in 2025.

Those also included an activist for the minority Montagnard group who was arrested in Thailand and extradited to Vietnam, a dissident writer accused of spreading “propaganda against the state,” and a man who helped residents of Ha Tinh province file complaints demanding fair compensation for land expropriated for a new highway.

“The Vietnamese government has dealt alarmingly severe punishments to longstanding targets like journalists and human rights activists, while displaying an increasing willingness to attack groups previously thought safe, such as political exiles and legal petitioners,” the report said.

FILE - A giant Vietnamese national flag hangs from a balcony in the old quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)