Everything's Alright in Right

[A Boy Named Seo]

Mendoza's gotta be feeling great when he looks over his right field options. It's a shame MJ Melendez went to the WBC to sit because he got off to a hot start here and can't be helping his cause too much at the moment.

MJ - 1.364 OPS, 2 HR in 11 AB with the Mets (0-3 with 2 walks for Puerto Rico)

Tauchman - 1.054 OPS, 1 HR in 16 AB

Benge .918 OPS, 0 HR in 23 AB

The Mets are definitely letting Benge play himself in or out of a job, and he doesn't seem at all interested in the latter proposition.

Even the other guys who could play there are raking:

Baty - 1.138 OPS, 1 HR in 15 AB

Taylor 1.068 OPS, 2 HR in 20 AB

Pache 1.261 OPS, 1 HR in 19 AB

I'm sure this will all work itself out, but it's damn good place to be so far.

[Edgy MD]

Is it his Jaredness or his Youth that makes you so afraid of including Jared Young in this conversation? Because JY has nailed up .250 / .462 / .625 // 1.087 in a meager eight trips plateward.

Vidal Brujan and Ji Hwan Bae are also pounding at what surely seems like a very closed door from their perspective.

[Lefty Specialist]

Um, small sample sizes and all that. Benge needs to be given every chance to play himself in or out. And unless he's totally en fuego through late March, he should probably get his reps in Syracuse.

A good spring should not be enough to promote him. He needs a GREAT spring.

[Edgy MD]

Sure, they are all small sample sizes (some, like JY, are tiny), but collectively, they are less so, and that's good.

In general, a guy winning a job on Spring Training numbers should always give one pause. I think, when teams do make a job decision in March, they more typically award such jobs based on round-the-clock analysis rather than in-game outcomes. I hope so, anyhow.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Nobody seems to be saying this out loud, but isn't it to the Mets' advantage to hold him back for a while to delay his free agency?

[Gwreck]

It sure is. They didn’t do that with Pete Alonso, and if they had, there wouldn’t have been a contract issue with him after 2024.

There is also now a prospect promotion incentive, so if Benge has a full year of service time as a rookie, and either wins the Rookie of the Year, or is top 3 in voting for MVP or Cy Young at any time before hitting arbitration eligibility, the Mets would get a bonus draft pick after the first round.

However: a team can only get one prospect promotion incentive pick per year. And McLean is as likely as anyone to be on the roster the whole year and win ROY.