From the moment Robinson Cano stepped into the Met clubhouse in Port St Lucie, Amed Rosario and Cano have been joined at the hip. Amed has benefited greatly from that watching a future Hall of Famer prepare for his craft while not being afraid to make in-game adjustments on the fly.
Last night, Rosario had the biggest hit of the night in Atlanta when he crush a three-run homer to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. In 2018, Rosario would often fall behind in the count and that borderline outside pitch did him in. But I have noticed a drastic change in his two-strike approach fighting off that pitch by not being too pull happy and unleashing swings to the opposite field.
Honestly, I started to see this change late last year as Mickey Callaway and his coaching staff spent countless hours working with the shortstop on pitch selection. They emphasized fouling off those tough pitches and getting to live another day in the at-bat, which can be a great weapon in making the pitcher work harder to get you out. This has two benefits to the Mets: it increases the pitch count of the starter pitchers the team is facing putting the game in the bullpen much earlier than the opposing manager wants while at the same time plays to the strengths of Rosario as a wall-to-wall hitter who has the speed to turn singles into doubles.
It also speaks to the coachability of Rosario, whom I can tell you loves hearing the experience of others. He is a great person who works so hard on being the best he can be and loves the learning path.
That is why I think he is headed for great things in 2019. We should never forget he was once the top prospect in all of baseball and sometimes talented players like that need to evolve into their greatness. We are seeing that evolution in 2019 and he adds length to the Met lineup that has already looked pretty good.
I firmly believe we are looking at a NL All Star shortstop. Watch it evolve as the journey will be rewarding and very satisfying to every Met fan out there.
