Photo Credit – Allen Greene Photography

This year, the Mets had some terrific performances from players in this year’s draft class as well as some other younger players who played well for short season affiliates. Looking over those performances, here are 2018 Mets short season affiliate leaders in each offensive category among qualifiers (over 232 plate appearances):

R – 54 Felix Valerio (DSL Mets 1 & 2)
H – 84 Felix Valerio (DSL Mets 1 & 2)
2B – 17 Felix Valerio (DSL Mets 1 & 2), Andres Regnault (DSL Mets1)
3B – 12 Ross Adolph (Brooklyn)
HR – 11 Mark Vientos (Kingsport)
RBI – 52 Mark Vientos (Kingsport)
SB – 21 Guillermo Granadillo (Kingsport)
BB – 46 Shervyen Newton (Kingsport)
BA – .348 Luis Santana (Kingsport)
OBP – .446 Luis Santana (Kingsport)
SLG – .509 Ross Adolph (Brooklyn)
OPS – .917 Luis Santana (Kingsport)
TB – 114 Felix Valerio (DSL Mets 1 & 2)

Seeing how high powered the Kingsport offense has been this season, it should come as no surprise Kingsport players were prevalent on this list.  It should also come as no surprise that of the players from Kingsport, Santana, the Sterling Award winner for this level, was the player who led the team in most categories.

What may come as a surprise is seeing how prevalent Valerio’s name is on this list.  The 5’7″ 17 year old second baseman was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Mets on March 22 this year.  While he was not one of the more heralded signings and with him not receiving a large bonus, he had a terrific professional debut, and if he is able to repeat this level of performance, he will soon find himself receiving accolades similar to players who received much larger bonuses than he.