If you were hoping that the recent injury to Neil Walker would pave the way to the majors for top prospect Amed Rosario, you’re going to have to continue waiting.
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson spoke at a press conference on Thursday and dispelled any promotion for Rosario.
“First of all, we have some good players here,” Alderson said. “Reyes is playing currently at shortstop, Cabrera’s coming back. We have Flores. We have T.J. Rivera. We have a variety of people who can play it’s not like we have a big whole in our lineup.”
Rosario, 21, is ranked as the No. 3 top prospect in all of baseball according to MLB.com and the No. 5 prospect by Baseball America and is enjoying a splendid season for Triple-A Las Vegas thus far.
In 64 games for the 51s, Rosario is hitting at a .333/.374/.496 clip with seven home runs and 45 RBI in 286 at-bats.
“We view Rosario as a possible long-term answer for us,” Alderson said. “We don’t necessarily view him as a short-term fix. So without focusing on Amed and saying, ‘He needs to do this,’ or, ‘He needs to do that,’ that’s not really the issue here. It’s a broader, little more multi-faceted question for us.”
With T.J. Rivera slated to get a bulk of the playing time at second in place of Walker, Gavin Cecchini was instead called up from Las Vegas for infield reinforcements.
Cecchini, 23, was batting .249/.313/.349 with three home runs and 17 RBI in 274 at-bats at the time of his promotion.
Alderson said that he thinks Rosario will benefit from more time at Triple-A, which is why Cecchini was called-up instead.
“What we felt and what we continue to feel is that he will benefit from more time in Las Vegas,” Alderson said. “In the meantime, we have good players here and are playing good baseball, and we hope to continue that.”
