The New York Mets invested a lot of hope into Amed Rosario and he finally lived up to his potential during the second half of the season. Rosario is still young and seems to only be getting better as he heads into the 2020 season.
.@Amed_Rosario and @You_Found_Nimmo keep the party going. pic.twitter.com/wQtmLxr7ID
— New York Mets (@Mets) September 26, 2019
Rosario was nothing special with the bat or the glove through the first half of the season. He only hit .260, but showed promise in the power department with nine home runs. His hitting was never consistent as he struggled in May and his defense followed suit.
Move to Center Field?
There were so many issues with Rosario’s defense that it led to discussions about moving him to center field. These conversations happened right around July and it was at that time when he started to pick things up. Rosario hit .340 for July/August and his hot hitting carried over to his defense where he only made five errors for the rest of the season.
Holy. freaking. range. pic.twitter.com/9QzSjtdQcb
— Shannon (@Miss_Met) September 26, 2019
In only his age 23 season, it seemed way to soon to give up on him. Guys like Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil outshined Rosario because they came up and had immediate success. People forget that they are both older than Rosario and did not accelerate his growth at the same speed. The Mets continued to play him everyday and it paid off as all they had to do was give their young shortstop time to grow.
Other Areas of Improvement
The number one area of improvement for Rosario has to be in the walk department. In over 50 more plate appearances this season he only walked two more times than he did in 2018. If he is able to improve that part of his game, he will be the perfect leadoff hitter for the Mets.
His second area of improvement has to be in his base stealing ability. He was only successful in 19 of 30 attempts and he is too fast to be a poor base stealer. A lot of his issues were due to a lack of good jumps and in decisiveness on the base paths.
The Mets have to be delighted with what they are seeing from Rosario and confident that he will lead them to a successful 2020.
Grades:
Hitting: B+, .282 average with RISP, .280 with a runner on third and 2 outs.
Power: C, Met expectations with the power
Defense: B, Started bad, but finished great
Speed/Baserunning: C, lack of stealing ability hurts him here
Intangibles: B, looks like a young, quiet leader in the making
Overall: B, have to be pleased with his second half surge to end the season