New York Mets shortstop Amed Rosario‘s development at the plate has been apparent this season. While he hasn’t yet evolved into the above-average ballplayer he was projected to, the 23-year-old is certainly making progress.
A part-time leadoff hitter slashing .252/.294/.429 is nothing to write home about, but strides are being taken, friends.
Rosario’s seen his weighted runs created plus rating climb closer and closer to 100 — an average major league hitter — each season since making his debut in 2017.
At 92 wRC+ through 60 games this year (75 wRC+ in 2017; 85 in 2018), it’s clear the Dominican native’s — again, just 23 — ceiling is still a ways off.
His strikeout rate is up this season (23.7% from 20.1% last season), and his defense hasn’t lived up to its lofty hype (-12 DRS, -5.6 UZR, -15.5 UZR/150 this season; all dead last among qualified MLB shortstops), but there have been more upticks than dropoffs for the young sparkplug.
Rosey’s seen spikes in his walk rate (5.5%, up from 4.9% in 2018), isolated power (.176 ISO; .125 last season), and weighted on-base average (.304 wOBA; .290 last season).
He’s already got four triples, halfway to his 2018 total of eight (good for fourth in the NL last year) and with eight home runs through just 253 plate appearances, Rosario’s only one dinger away from matching his previous career-high of nine, set last year over 592 plate appearances.
His hard-hit rate is climbing at an awesome pace (34.6% from 27.7% last year) and his soft-hit percentage has bottomed out (15.1%, down from 20.4% last season), as well — presumably a strong factor in Amed Rosario’s 2019 power surge.
His barrel rate has increased a full three percentage points from last season (6.9% from 3.9%) and his average exit velocity has made a modest jump (89.5 mph this year; 87.3 MPH in 2018) — both great signs.
And what’s most impressive — to me, at least — is Rosario’s steadily-improving ability to drive the ball to all fields.
He’s gone the other way at a 26.3% clip and into center field at a 45.3% rate — both slight bumps from his 23.8% and 41.3% marks last year, respectively — and has seen his pull-rate drop considerably (28.5% in 2019; 34.9% last year).
Via Rosario’s profile page at Baseball Savant, the 23-year-old’s 10 doubles and eight homers — fifth and third-best on the Mets, respectively — have been liberally spread around the diamond. That’s another great indicator of what’s to come.
