Carson Benge began his major league career hitting .108 in his first 11 games while playing for a club that is the most expensive in the game and has legitimate World Series ambitions. If any team is going to shorten leashes to find players who will perform quickly, it would be the Mets, who are under enormous pressure after last year’s disaster.
But no, David Stearns said, the 23-year-old is not close to a demotion.
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“We’re going to be patient,” the president of baseball operations said Friday. “Carson’s a part of this team. We believe he’s going to help us win games this year.
“The nice thing about Carson and what he brings to the team is that he can contribute in a variety of different ways, so it’s not all on his bat. He’s a good defender. He’s a good base runner. And I think that allows someone to be able to work through things at the plate a little bit when they’re contributing to wins in other ways.”
Benge is a quality outfielder with a strong throwing arm that has helped in right field and center field and has good speed, entering play with four steals, but the Mets awarded him the Opening Day job in hopes his bat would play.
The early returns have demonstrated that the rookie — like thousands before him — will need to adjust to the best pitching he has ever seen. Benge earned a debut after just one full season in the minors and 24 games with Triple-A Syracuse last year.
In the early going, he was 4-for-37 with a home run, five walks and 12 strikeouts. After sailing through the Mets’ system showing excellent plate discipline and contact skills, striking out just 17.7 percent of the time last season, that rate spiked to 28.6 percent in MLB.
“I think we’ve seen at times some really good at-bats and, at times, maybe getting a little bit jumpy and probably trying to do too much — maybe subconsciously trying to do too much,” Stearns said. “But this is a really good athlete. It’s a good baseball player. You can go through stretches at the big leagues and tie yourself in knots a little bit, and part of being in the big leagues is figuring out how to get yourself out of it. … Our evaluation of the player hasn’t changed at all.”
Other takeaways from Stearns before the Mets began a series with the A’s at Citi Field:
“Run prevention,” a 13-letter phrase, has become a four-letter word around the Mets’ fan base, considering how often it was cited in overhauling the roster from last season.
Stearns wanted to improve defensively, which factored in to allowing Pete Alonso to leave in free agency and trading Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil. The Mets are far more athletic this season but are playing several of these athletes at unfamiliar positions, from Bo Bichette (third base) to Jorge Polanco (first base when healthy) to Brett Baty (right field and first base) to Mark Vientos (first base).
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Baty and Vientos were tested on difficult plays Thursday, which led to a loss. But the defense has been generally fine, and the club defense is rated anywhere from average to elite in the early advanced metrics.
“We’ve been a pretty good defensive team,” Stearns said. “Really that includes the players who are playing slightly different positions or the players who we are asking to play multiple positions.”
Simply playing the odds, Stearns believes Sean Manaea will rejoin the rotation at some point.
The veteran lefty has been relegated to long relief, first because the Mets had plenty of off days that did not lend itself to a sixth starter and now because the Mets prefer the five starters ahead of Manaea in the pecking order.
The Mets and Manaea are hoping his velocity returns, which it had not through three relief outings. Nevertheless, the Mets understand that they are rare in sporting a completely healthy rotation.
“My expectation, just based on my experience of how many starters you need over the course of a major league season, [is] that Sean’s going to make a bunch of starts for us this year, and I think he’s very capable of doing that,” Stearns said.
The lone member of the rotation not performing has been David Peterson. Stearns expressed belief in Peterson and said, “I think he’ll put this past him.”
A.J. Minter has begun a rehab assignment, but also deep in the club’s minor league system are a pair of veterans who are building up their bodies and angling for a big-league job: reliever Craig Kimbrel and Tommy Pham.
Kimbrel, who did not make the club out of camp but remained in the organization, threw a clean inning with a strikeout with Low-A St. Lucie on Tuesday.
“We continue to believe he can help us this year. I know he wants to help us,” Stearns said.
Pham — 38 and signed last week to a minor league pact — began his progression in the minors Thursday with St. Lucie and is expected to report to Syracuse fairly soon.
If Pham has more life in his bat, the righty slugger could help as a platoon outfielder with lefties Benge or Young (or simply replace Benge or Young).
But Pham has to perform and will not simply be given a job when he is up to speed.
“We’re happy to have him in the organization,” Stearns said. “And once he’s ready to go, we’ll determine whether there’s a need here or not.”
