The slick-fielding Luis Guillorme received the same amount of playing time he earned in 2018 for the New York Mets. He improved his pinch-hitting and made the most of his minimal opportunities in the big leagues. For the third straight season, he will head into Spring Training as a fringe roster guy.
Luis Guillorme, the newest Mets hero (via @Mets) pic.twitter.com/6gDcFwF7ny
— SNY (@SNYtv) August 11, 2019
Guillorme started the season on the opening day roster but was optioned twice before the month ended. He was only 3-for-18 (.167) in April, and all of those hits were singles. Guillorme received a doubleheader call up on June 11 but was not formally back on the roster until July 3.
On the Roster, But Barely Used
At that point, he was on the roster for about three weeks but only received four at-bats. All of them were pinch-hitting opportunities and only recorded one hit. Guillorme ended up being sent back down on July 18. When August came around, Guillorme finally returned to the big leagues because of Robinson Cano’s hamstring injury.
Luis Guillorme is your late-night hero who was completely unaware of his first-career home-run ball sitting behind him until a reporter pointed it out: pic.twitter.com/H6owHjP4xu
— Deesha (@DeeshaThosar) August 11, 2019
Guillorme seemed to figure things out with the bat in his third opportunity of the season. From August 3 to the rest of the season, he was 11-for-39 (.282) and had a .462 slugging percentage, which is almost double of what it was for his career. He even hit his first career home run, which was a big pinch-hit home run against the Washington Nationals.
In limited opportunities, Guillorme was solid on defense and turned nine double plays in 33 innings at second base. He turned two in 48.2 innings at shortstop. His late-season showing on offense, along with his stability on defense, should put him in an excellent spot to make the roster next season.
Grades:
Hitting for Average: C-, His bat seemed to get quicker towards the end of the season
Hitting for Power: D+, .361 slugging percentage is over 100 points better than last season
Defense: B-, Versatile defender, only one error in just under 100 innings
Speed/Baserunning: C? Did not attempt to steal any bases and did not have enough opportunities to distinguish himself
Intangibles: A, No reason to give him anything less. A good teammate who others embraced
Overall: C, Nothing amazing from him, but played the way we expected him to. Hopefully, he adds more power for 2020