At just 23-years-old, the New York Mets’ Amed Rosario still has plenty of development ahead of him. But if the progress we’ve seen so far is any indication of the strides he’s set to make over the next few years, this organization could have a budding star on their hands.
After a 2018 season that saw Rosario struggle to find consistency, only to finish the year out on an extremely strong — and encouraging — note, as well as no immediate danger being posed to his job security as the Mets’ starting shortstop, a ton of folks within and without the organization have some fairly high hopes for the young Dominican native.
In a very interesting interview with Tim Healey of Newsday, Mets infield and third base coach Gary DiSarcina made, in this writer’s opinion, a spot-on comparison to another young shortstop who the Mets’ reassigned bench coach and former Red Sox’ coach has had the pleasure of watching develop — the Boston Red Sox’ Xander Bogaerts.
“Xander is a great comp for Amed, and one day Amed can become as well-rounded a baseball player like Xander is. Each player at the same age shared explosiveness and speed to the ball and speed on the basepaths, above-average first-step quickness to the ball, and the important trait of being coachable,” DiSarcina said. “Amed can reach the levels that Xander has reached.”
Well, that would be nice, huh?
Since making his debut for Boston in 2013, Bogaerts has a .284/.343/.429 slash line with 162-game averages of 16 homers, 82 runs batted in, 38 doubles, three triples, and a 106 OPS+ rating. The Aruba native hasn’t developed into a glove-first shortstop by any means (-40 DRS, -2 UZR since 2016), but his offensive adeptness makes up for any fielding deficiencies in spades.
Bogaerts hit .240/.297/.362 with an 81 weighted runs created plus rating, 66.3 percent Z-Swing percentage (outside the zone), and a 10.7 percent whiff rate in an unspectacular first full season in the bigs (2014, 144 games),
Over the next four years, Bogaerts got consistently better. Though he hasn’t touched the .320 batting average he put up in 2015, the young shortstop’s 2018 line gives ample proof as to the steps he’s taken since making his debut for the Sox in 2013.
Over 136 games (580 plate appearances), the 26-year-old hit .288/.360/.522 with 23 homers, 103 RBI, 4.9 wins above replacement (FanGraphs), a 61.3 percent Z-Swing rate, and an 8.7 percent whiff rate.
Rosario’s whiff rate saw a tremendous decrease from his first taste of the majors through last season, his first full year in The Show (18.1 percent in 2017 to 12.8 percent in 2018), but his Z-Swing percentage jumped up nearly three percentage points (66.6 percent to 69.4 percent). Room for improvement is never a bad thing — as long as steps are being taken to rectify the issues.
For someone who showed the same faults as Amed Rosario’s shown over his first season and a half in the bigs (poor plate discipline, inconsistency at the plate and in the field), the progress Bogaerts has made has to be a source of inspiration for the Mets’ 23-year-old shortstop.
Having a trusted coach in DiSarcina state publicly that Amed Rosario has the tools, talent, and dedication to one day become as good a player as Xander Bogaerts must leave the Dominican product over the moon.
