Ever since hitting his first major league home run on Opening Day, it has been a struggle for Carson Benge at the plate. Heading into the season, Benge was ranked the best position prospect on the New York Mets. He made the team flawlessly out of spring training, but as always, it’s never that simple. Benge quickly learned that being in the big leagues will come with adversity, and it’s how you respond that matters. Now, Benge is responding and is being rewarded.
Carson Benge Changes Batting Stance
From March 28 to April 22, Benge hit a dismal .127, struck out 16 times, and had just eight hits during that stretch. It was frustrating for the 23-year-old, who had just made the club out of spring training, where he hit .366 and produced an .874 OPS across 14 games.
You can be frustrated and let it get to your head, or you can be frustrated and try to fix the issues. Benge smartly chose the latter, but not without help. Through the first month of the season, Benge appeared with a slightly wider batting stance than he did during spring training. Mets hitting coaches Troy Snitker and Rafael Fernandez, director of major league hitting Jeff Albert, and quality control coach Danny Barnes all noticed the change.
The coaches shared the data they had collected and pitched it to Benge. The data showed that Benge had been in a stance that was in the low 20’s (degrees) in terms of openness. Benge has always had a somewhat open stance, but not to this magnitude. Throughout the last few weeks, the left-handed hitter has dropped to under 10 degrees of stance openness. His feet are slightly closer together as well, and the results have followed.
Over the last 15 games, Benge is slashing an encouraging .326/.283/.558, with two home runs, six extra base-hits, and a .941 OPS. He’s been pencilled in the starting lineup far more often than not, and the confidence is only growing higher.
“It just feels like a juiced baseball game now,” Benge said. “Kind of took a while to get my feet settled and different things like that. Now I feel like I’m finding my groove and getting more comfortable.”
Starting to Click
Despite his earlier offensive struggles, Benge’s defense never wavered. Wherever manager Carlos Mendoza has needed him to play in the outfield, he has delivered. Having an outfielder of Benge’s caliber is a huge boost for the Mets, but also for the pitchers. It gives them a sense of relief knowing “I have a guy who can save me some runs.” It also emphasizes his value, showing he can produce with the glove if he’s not hitting.
“He’s an elite defender, and that’s good to see, especially when [he wasn’t] providing much offensively the way he got out of the gate,” Mendoza said. “But he still went out there and played that defense. The fun part for me has been that he does it everywhere. You can put him in center [field], you can put him in right, you can put him left, and he allows me to make not only lineup decisions but in-game moves.”
And now that Benge is doing this while producing offensively has helped the Mets win games. New York has won four of their last five and have gone 5-2 since the calendar flipped to May. They have looked like a much better team overall. The Mets’ recent success continued in Arizona, with Benge contributing to a 3-1 victory over the Diamondbacks on Friday by driving in an insurance run with a double in extra innings.
“Short, aggressive, getting the barrel to balls, using the whole field, not only pulling the baseball but going the other way,” Mendoza said. “[He’s] just hitting line-drives and not missing pitches.”
Main Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
