Andres Gimenez is entering his fifth season in the Mets’ organization, and is on the cusp of making an impact at the MLB level in 2020.
The shortstop is ranked as the No. 84 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline going into the 2020 season, and showed his defensive prowess during Saturday’s spring opener with the Miami Marlins.
Definitely need to highlight Andrés Giménez's defense at shortstop in yesterday's spring opener. Looked very poised and his actions were smooth all afternoon. Remember he's on the 40-man roster now. #Mets pic.twitter.com/uL7eEoi4fO
— Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) February 23, 2020
Gimenez spent the entirety of 2019 with Double-A Binghamton, and there has been a misconception that he struggled there. He really didn’t.
It’s important to keep in mind that Gimenez was younger than most of the talent at Double-A last year and also dealt with a hand injury during the campaign. Regardless, he still appeared in a career high 117 games, and had a 105 wRC+ and .316 wOBA to go along with nine home runs.
Gimenez followed up his season at Binghamton with a strong Arizona Fall League with the Scottsdale Scorpions. The 21-year-old hit .371/.413/.586 in 75 plate appearances.
The Venezuela native will likely begin the season at Triple-A, but as Resnick points out, is now on the 40-man roster so the chances we see him in Queens in 2020 is high.
Amed Rosario, who is entrenched at shortstop for the Mets for the foreseeable future, makes it a bit harder for Gimenez to leapfrog him, but baseball is an unpredictable sport and you never know what can happen.
Having multiple guys who are on the radar and can potentially make a difference is a great problem to have.
For Gimenez, it seems as though his “top prospect” status has fallen by the wayside, especially with Rosario’s elevation in performance at the MLB level and the rise of fellow shortstop prospect Ronny Mauricio, but at just 21-years-old, Gimenez shouldn’t be forgotten about.
