The New York Mets opened their three-game revenge series in Denver with a 4-2 win. The win brings them to .500 over their last 12 games. While not exactly the trajectory of a playoff team, it’s definitely better than the stretch preceding this recent run.
Monday’s victory was, stop me if you’ve heard this before, not the best offensive showing from this Mets club. The team mustered only four hits. Luckily for the Mets, they all came in the same inning, producing four runs. Despite the performance, it was the rookie that stole the show in Denver on Monday.
Photo Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Carson Benge continued his strong play of late with standout performances at both the dish and while patrolling center field. Benge began his night with a leadoff walk in the third, his third in two games, breaking up Tomoyuki Sugano’s perfect-game bid. After dashing Colorado’s dreams of perfection, Benge then put the no-hit bid to bed a few innings later by shooting a 104.6 mph rocket into the seats in right-center to lead off the sixth inning.
On the defensive end of things, Benge continues to wow with his athleticism and instincts. After forcing Gary Cohen to say a word never before used to describe a baseball play (don’t fact check me) during Sunday’s game in Anaheim, Benge made another run saving catch—this time off the bat of Tyler Freeman, a 102.1 mph line drive found Benge’s glove.
Through 32 major league games, Benge has hit the typical bumps that come with the jump to the big leagues. Over Benge’s first 21 games, he slashed .136/.219/.197/.416 with just two hits going for extra bases in 73 plate appearances. And if you take out his outstanding first impression from Opening Day, his line drops to an unsightly .127/.191/.143/.334.
But something snapped into place 11 games ago. Since April 23, Benge is slashing .303/.361/.545/.907 with four extra base hits in 36 plate appearances. Two improvements stick out during these last 11 games. The first being Benge’s ability to make consistent contact. During his first 21 games he was striking out 25% of the time. When comparing that rate to the one he held last year in the minors (18%) across 519 plate appearances, it’s clear Benge has been struggling to adjust to big league pitching. However, that number has improved to 17% over his last 11 games.
The second improvement is Benge’s ability to make quality contact. The improvements show up clearly in the underlying metrics:
First 21 Games:
- HardHit% – 40%
- AvgEV – 90.1%
- Launch Angle – 7 degrees
Last 11 Games:
- HardHit% – 52%
- AvgEV – 92.6%
- Launch Angle – 13 degrees
Benge has been hitting the ball harder and has been hitting it into the ground much less during this span. During that span, his xwOBA has also risen from .287 (below league average) to .336 (above league average).
It should also not be overlooked that while Benge’s bat has been a mixed bag, his defense and base running have been anything but. He ranks in the 88th percentile in Vaserunning Value to go with six steals and in the 90th percentile in Fielding Run Value to go with 4 OAA.
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The Mets poor play thus far this season has been spoken about ad nauseum at this point. The offense in particular has ranked dead last in baseball in most categories for much of the season. While Benge maybe could have used more Triple-A seasoning, the Mets have needed his defense and baserunning with nearly half the opening lineup spending time on the injured list.
You can add Carlos Mendoza to the list of folks who have been impressed with his demeanor during the rough beginning to the season.
“I’ve been impressed with how he’s handled the whole situation — how steady he’s been, how professional, how mature he’s been. Even when it was really, really hard for him, I never sensed any type of panicking,” Mendoza said. “He handled it pretty well. He continues to show a lot of good signs on and off the field.”
Even when Benge makes a mistake in front of a crowd, he handles it with aplomb. While he made a great catch in the third, he got a bit tangled chasing a long fly ball in the seventh that resulted in a run and continued the inning. After the game he joked that his diving catch was less impressive as the result of his fall, “Because I fell on my face, those cancel out.”
The sample sizes are still small, but with the calendar turning to May, Benge’s early adjustments are worth watching closely.
