Prior to Friday night’s 3-for-4 performance, Amed Rosario hasn’t really hit much in the major leagues. So far, Rosario is batting just .229/.250/.429 with a homer and two RBI in ten major league games. This is nowhere near the .328/.367/.466 slash line the shortstop had in Triple-A.
Despite this, Rosario has had a net positive impact on the Mets. He’s got a 0.2 bWAR, which is pretty good considering his struggles on offense. This is because Rosario has made a tremendous impact on defense and he’s got the metrics to show for it.
Rosario’s already got one defensive run saved, which would translate to about 16 over a full season. This would have put him at fifth in the majors in 2016. He’s also got an .885 revised zone rating, which FanGraphs categorizes as somewhere between “above average” and “great.” His defensive WAR of of 0.5 is a really fantastic number for just ten games — let alone the first ten of Rosario’s career.
Rosario’s range has been on display to anyone who’s watched him field at all this season and it’s quite apparent in his 4.69 range factor per nine innings number.
These stats are unsurprising considering the fact that Rosario has yet to make an error this season. He’s had 46 chances so far in the Majors, and he’s converted on all 46. It’s obviously a small sample size, but it’s certainly something Mets fans will take after Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera booted balls on the regular all year at shortstop.
Numbers aside, Rosario passes the eye test too. He makes tough plays look routine, and makes routine plays look even more routine– if that makes any sense. Rosario has shown, at least in the field, every bit of the potential that made him MLB Pipeline’s No. 2 overall prospect at the time of his call up.
Even if Rosario continues to struggle at the plate (which his minor league reputation indicates that he won’t) he still can be a valuable part of the Mets just for his defense and base running. And he will be a part of this team for a very, very long time.
