Photo by Ed Delany
Overnight, Luis Guillorme went from the best kept secret in the Mets farm system to defensive genius. The reason for that is he caught Adeiny Hechavarria‘s errant bat during a Spring Training game. People took notice to the point where Guillorme’s phone blew up, and he would have people just throwing bats at him.
While this was happening, Guillorme was focusing on improving as a ballplayer. That included continuing to put in the work defensively, which would allow him to make highlight reel play after highlight reel play at second and short this season for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. It would also mean improving offensively.
It worked as Guillorme would have an improved year at the plate posting a career high in extra base hits. Overall, he would hit .283/.376/.331 with 20 doubles, a homer, and 43 RBI. He’d finish sixth in the Eastern League in OBP and second in walks (72). On the strength of his complete game, Guillorme would be named a mid-season and the post-season Eastern League All Star. It would also lead to the Mets assigning him to the Arizona Fall League.
Now that he’s in the Arizona Fall League, Guillorme looks to continue improving his game. As he told Josh Norris of Baseball America, “I’m trying to drive the ball a little bit more. That’s pretty much it. I’m trying to be a little quieter with my body and my hands and making sure the hands come through before the body does. That’s the main thing I’ve been working on since the season ended.”
So far, it seems to be working for him with Guillorme going 4-8 with an RBI in two games played. While the extra base hits haven’t come yet, with Guillorme’s worth ethic, there should be no doubt they will soon follow. Once that happens, Guillorme will have given the Mets yet another reason to add him to the 40 man roster this offseason to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
Good to hear. He will likely need to drive the ball more to be a player at the major league level. There is not much room for defense first no power guys on the bench with the increasing importance of relief pitching.
Great. Guillorme shows a surprising amount of power during BP, so it would be fantastic if he could convert some of that into games. Even if he becomes just a gap-to-gap hitter, it would dramatically improve his prospect stock. Of course, he shouldn’t sacrifice his great plate discipline and contact skills to hit for more power, but hopefully he can find a way to improve on power without reducing the skills that got him where he is
I hope he does learn to drive the ball more and increase his overall value to the team. I already think he may need to be on the 40 this winter.
Consider this — if the RP’s can be consistently brought in with a lead, the best IF defenders should also be switched in, and thus need to be on the bench in the first place.