New York Mets shortstop prospect Andres Gimenez has seen his once-brilliant luster fade over the last 12 months. Going back to last summer, he’s been doing all he can to reverse that process.
After being tabbed as baseball’s no. 58 prospect heading into the 2019 season, per MLB Pipeline, the 21-year-old Venezuelan product struggled with underperformance and injuries last season, leading them to place him in 84th in this year’s preseason rankings. The Athletic’s Keith Law left Gimenez off his 2020 top-100 prospects list, altogether.
Following an encouraging 2018, hitting .281/.347/.409 over 122 games between Advanced-A St. Lucie (124 wRC+) and Double-A Binghamton (100 wRC+) with reports of outstanding glovework, Gimenez was invited to compete against some of the most promising prospects in the minor leagues in the post-season Arizona Fall League.
He struggled mightily (.125/.250/.309 over 57 plate appearances), but, at 19 years old, there was plenty of time to make headway.
The Mets’ director of player development at the time, Ian Levin (currently the team’s senior director of baseball operations) raved about Gimenez after the season.
“Andres has been one of the best players in whatever league he’s played in, regardless of age,” Levin told MiLB.com. “He’s got a feel for the game and maturity that is off the charts, and his skills on the field are obvious […] We’ve also seen him start to tap into more power, which furthers our projection for him as a strong, all-around player.”
Gimenez needed a big 2019 to claim his stake to not only his next-in-line status bubbling through the organizational ranks but also at the major-league level — a position which, heading into last season, was not as tightly held by Amed Rosario as it is heading into 2020. Things didn’t go exactly to plan.
From the beginning of the Double-A season through the end of May, Gimenez slashed just .238/.316/.360 with three home runs, eight doubles, and two triples over 197 plate appearances for the Rumble Ponies. This was not the player we’d been hearing so much about.
Following a hit-by-pitch on the hand on June 2 and his subsequent placement on the injured list, Gimenez returned to action on June 15. From then through the end of the month, the 20-year-old struggled, hitting .211/.262/.298 over 62 plate appearances. Once the calendar turned to July, Gimenez heated up. And he hasn’t quite cooled down since.
From July 1 through the end of Double-A Binghamton’s season, Gimenez slashed .276/.318/.444. Over 18 games during his second stint in the AFL, Gimenez led the league in batting average (.371), OPS (.999), and his .413 on-base percentage ranked fourth. That’s more like it.
Whether it was his late-season resurgence or the need to get a clearer look at the player heading into 2020 that motivated the Mets to send Gimenez back to the Arizona Fall League is not known.
The situation being as it is with the Mets’ other top shortstop prospect Ronny Mauricio (62nd-ranked prospect in baseball via MLB Pipeline; hit .268/.307/.357 for Single-A Columbia last season) arguably points to the latter.
Coming into Spring Training this season — his first as a member of the Mets’ 40-man roster — Gimenez has picked up right where he left off last fall. Over his first 13 plate appearances, the 21-year-old has gone 4-for-12 with a double, a homer, a walk, and just one strikeout — and that glove is still solid.
Following his game-winning home run versus the Cardinals at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie on Friday, Gimenez spoke with the Mets’ media corps via Alan Suriel, the team’s translator, about his progress, as well as the benefits of adding muscle this offseason (video via Anthony DiComo, MLB).
“I think [the added muscle] has helped me tremendously to be able to focus on the offseason and to be able to put in all that work so I can stay healthy throughout the season and be able to help the team win,” Gimenez said. “I think [the balance of muscle and athleticism] is important because speed is one of my stronger tools but to [also] be able to continue gaining muscle and being able to fill out my body the way that I want.”
If this is what we can expect from an offseason of hard work in the weight room, a resounding yes, please is our unified response at the moment. Mets’ skipper Luis Rojas shares similar sentiments (quote via Justin Toscano, The Record).
“Baseball I.Q., his defense, that’s always something that kept him high in the organization as far as being a prospect,” Rojas said. “Now that he’s put some of that strength on him, some of that weight on him — in a good way; because he’s still fast, he’s still moving pretty good out there — now everything is coming together.”
Ah, just another interesting storyline to keep an eye on this spring.
