For much of the season, there were discussions about how Dominic Smith has been relatively struggling and how Amed Rosario has been dominating at Triple-A. This has caused people to make calls for Rosario to be called-up to the majors and to question whether Smith is really the Mets long-term answer at first base.
Smith has been putting some of those concerns to bed with his 15-game hitting streak which is just one off of his career high. In that streak, he has hit .370/.419/.500 with four doubles, a homer, and six RBI. It’s more than those 15 games, Smith has been tearing the cover off the ball all throughout the Month of June. Over that stretch, Smith has earned gotten at least one hit in 23 of the 26 games he has played.
With this streak, he is now hitting .325/.377/.471 with 20 doubles, a triple, eight homers, and 46 RBI.
As hot as Smith is, Rosario is that cold. Over the Month of June, Rosario is hitting just .231/.277/.365 with two doubles, three triples, two homers, and 11 RBI. One reason for the cold snap is the 51s have been on the road for 17 of the team’s 26 games this month.
This year, Rosario has pronounced home and road splits. At Cashman Field, Rosario is hitting .333/.379/.524, and on the road, he is hitting .299/.335/.419.
Overall, we have once again learned player development is not a linear as we would like. Smith has made adjustments, and he is starting to hit better. Conversely, the league has adjusted to Rosario, and the future star needs to adjust back.
As the season progresses, both players will have peaks and valleys that are going to make them much better players. If anything, this season should only strengthen the belief that both will be very good major leaguers in the near future.
At no point did you discuss the benefits on the defensive side of the ball. In addition Rosario is hitting .299 away from Cashman with an .335 OBP. We will take those numbers and his greater range anytime. As Matz recently said, I’m putting the ball in play more and pitching nearly 7 innings a game. Oh, Smith is pretty good with the glove too.
Not sure Smith was ever really struggling. He had two or three mini-slumps over a 6-week stretch, but he’s managed to come out of them within 5 or 6 days. He still hit .314 in May and that was his weakest month. Good to see you coming around on the Rosario reality.