There was a glaring hole in the game of New York Mets shortstop Amed Rosario in his major league stint last year and was plate discipline.
Rosario, 22, walked only three times in 170 big league plate appearances. His 1.8% walk rate was the lowest among 376 major leaguers that had at least 170 plate appearances in 2017.
The lack of walks weren’t the only proof of his free swinging, he also struck out a whopping 49 times. His 28.8% strikeout rate was the 46th highest out of the 376 qualifiers and worst among Mets players.
Rosario knows this is an issue and that it needs to improve to be a big league hitter as he told Abbey Mastracco of the NJ.com, “For me, the thing I focus on is my strike zone. I know it was a little big and I know I need to really work on making that smaller.”
Taking a walk has always been something Rosario has struggled with his best rate coming at 8% for the Double-A Binghamton Mets in 2016 and only 5.4% for the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s last season.
Rosario was alongside fellow 22-year-old teammate Dominic Smith on Wednesday at Queens Target as part of the Mets annual shopping spree to help families shop for holiday toys and other items.
The young shortstop talked to Mastracco on numerous other topics including his mentor and free agent Jose Reyes, “It something for me where, of course it would be important if he was around. It’s not just for me, but I think for the whole team he’s a guy who brings a lot of energy.”
