One of the more exciting parts of a minor league baseball season is seeing some of the newest drafted prospects start to make their professional debuts. While a lot of pitchers tend to be handled carefully after full college seasons, hitters are often thrown right into the mix and get a chance to hone their skills immediately. This has been the case for outfielder Carson Benge, the Mets' first-round pick this July, and he is the focus of this week's edition of Minor League Mondays.
While Benge plied his trade as a two-way guy at Oklahoma State, the Mets are going to have him focus solely on hitting at the professional level. Scouts have fallen in love with Benge's raw power, often indicated by excellent exit velocity, and strong bat-to-ball skills. One of Benge's strengths as a left-handed hitter is easy opposite-field power, which he showcased in his first professional home run for Low-A St. Lucie last week.
Benge is off to a solid start in his first 11 games as a pro, batting .293 with two home runs, seven RBI and two stolen bases in 12 games for St. Lucie. The Mets also have to be encouraged by the fact that Benge has posted an .894 OPS in his first 41 at bats, which is a good sign that the jump to professional competition hasn't been too much of a challenge for their top draft pick.
The plan for Benge on defense is for him to play in the outfield, with center field being an area of focus right now while right field could be his long-term home. MLB.com currently has Benge rated as the Mets' fifth-best prospect after their mid-season update, which is a sign of the excellent value the Mets managed to procure despite seeing their first-round pick drop 10 slots from No. 9 to No. 19 after exceeding the third threshold of the luxury tax.
The minor league season is almost over so the Mets will likely let Benge finish the campaign with St. Lucie before pushing him along to High-A Brooklyn to start the 2025 season. Given how aggressively the Mets have pushed prospects along since David Stearns took over as the President of Baseball Operations, don't be shocked if Benge ends up at AA Binghamton at some point next summer too. With few long-term options in the outfield at the big league level aside from Brandon Nimmo, Benge certainly has an opportunity to make himself a factor into the Mets' plans with a strong showing over the next two years.
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