The Mets are giving more playing time to the shortstop of their future.
Amed Rosario sat on the bench for the second straight day against the Phillies — which allowed rookie Andres Gimenez to receive consecutive starts at shortstop because the Mets are playing the “hot hand.”
Manager Luis Rojas, when asked directly, would not commit to Rosario being the team’s primary shortstop with just three weeks to go in the baseball calendar.
“I mean right now, in the stretch that we are, we’re going to say that Gimenez is getting back to back games because he’s looked really good against right-handed pitchers,” Rojas said. “Rosie has looked good in his last game, but right now we’re basically spending some time using Gimenez as the hot hand.
“Rosie’s approach right now seems that he’s climbing, but I always stood behind saying that Rosie is our primary shortstop, but that’s what we’re doing right now. Just basically giving both a chance.”
That’s where the Mets are right now, with two-thirds of their season behind them and only 20 games remaining to make up for lost time and stretches of inconsistent baseball. This is a team that wants time to pause, so they can keep trying to put it all together and continue chasing postseason contention. But if the season ended on Saturday, while the Mets were in the middle of their biggest series of the year, they wouldn’t qualify for October baseball for the fourth straight year and 48th time in franchise history.
As Rojas likes to say: “We’re not there yet.”
The Mets entered Saturday just two games out of a playoff spot, thanks to Major League Baseball’s 16-team expanded format this season. The Wilpons have directed GM Brodie Van Wagenen to get creative and try hard in hopes of one last hoorah before hedge-fund billionaire Steve Cohen swoops in and reinvents the Amazin’s.
“We’ve talked amongst ourselves quite a bit, saying we’re not ready to go home,” Michael Conforto said of the team’s sense of urgency. “We feel like we just started. We’re going to do everything we can to keep this thing going.”
The Mets hope to string wins together with Gimenez at short, especially against right-handed pitchers, because Rosario is slashing .194/.194/.313 with a .507 OPS and 23 strikeouts against righties this season. Conversely, he’s batting .286 with just three strikeouts against lefties. Gimenez, though, is better against righties than Rosario — slashing .268/.305/.411 with a .716 OPS.
Rosario particularly struggles at home, which means we may see extra starts from Gimenez this week before the Mets hit the road on Sept. 11 to kick off a six-game road trip over eight days. Rosario is hitting .148 (9-for-48) at Citi Field compared to his .262 average (16-for-61) with all three of his home runs on the road.
Rojas would not say whether Gimenez will start against righties for the rest of the season. The Mets are scheduled to face three righties, including Saturday’s starter in Spencer Howard, while they host the Phillies for a four-game set.
“We can’t talk about the rest of the way,” Rojas said. “Right now, we feel pretty good about Gimenez starting against Spencer Howard and right now, we have two more righties in this series … Gimenez looked good yesterday. He faced this kid before, he looked really good against him. We went with him for back to back games. Both are going to get playing times.”
While it’s true that both Rosario and Gimenez are certainly getting playing time, as of Saturday, Gimenez has logged one more game (32) than Rosario (31) this season. The way they’ve been used may indicate a trend for Cohen’s Mets in which Gimenez is the starting shortstop of the future. Then again, it may not even matter. Cohen, estimated by Forbes to have a net worth of roughly $14 billion, is a diehard Mets fan who can write a check for an elite shortstop the minute he sits in the owner’s suite.
The debate over Rosario or Gimenez at shortstop may soon be a moot point. But while it’s still relevant, the Mets have made it clear their 22-year-old rookie from Venezuela gives the Mets a better chance to win right now.
