Photo by Logan Barer, MMO

Andres Gimenez being just 19-years-old hasn’t stopped him from posting an impressive .821 OPS in his first 21 games with the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies.

The New York Mets top prospect was promoted to Double-A after posting a .780 OPS in 85 games with the Advanced-A St. Lucie Mets. Gimenez was 3.4 year younger than the league average in the Florida State League and is now a whopping 5.3 years younger than the average in the Eastern League playing for Binghamton.

Baseball America recently polled managers in each of the full season leagues asking them to vote on the best tools and Gimenez was mentioned numerous times. He was voted the best baserunner, fastest baserunner, best defensive shortstop and best infield arm in the Florida State League.

Gimenez has blazed through the Mets system after they signed him out of Venezuela in 2015 for a $1.2 million bonus. He went straight from the Dominican Summer League in 2016 to the Columbia Fireflies in 2017, skipping over three levels. He’s also pushed himself up prospects list with MLB having him ranked No. 59 and BA with him at No. 52.

Beyond the impressive .321/.398/.423 slash line for Binghamton, the left-handed hitting Gimenez has also lowered his strikeout rate from 19.9% in A-Ball to 14.4% in Double-A and slightly raised his walk rate from 6.3% to 6.7%. He has also stolen five bases with Binghamton giving him 33 overall this year (though with 12 CS).

Time and time again I hear people talk about Gimenez and Amed Rosario in the same breath despite them being different types of players. While Rosario certainly has/had the higher ceiling of the two, Gimenez is the more polished player at his age. He does all the little developmental things right like bunting, baserunning, and other things that will never show up in the box scores.

Another thing that stands out to me about Gimenez is how much coaches rave about the young left-handed hitter. From work ethnic to maturity, multiple coaches from multiple teams have gone out of their way to throw praise on the Mets top prospect.

While Gimenez is still only 19, everything about his skillset shows a player close to major league ready on both sides of the ball.