Andres Gimenez/Photo by Ed Delany, MMN
Top Mets prospect Andres Gimenez has surprisingly gotten off to a slow start this season. Through his first seven games of the year, he was hitting just .161/.212/.258.
There are a number of different explanations for the start. At 20, Gimenez is the third youngest player in the Eastern League, and he’s 4.3 years younger than league average. There’s an element of bad luck as evidenced by his .227 BABIP. He’s never had a sub .310 BABIP in his career, and he had a .330 BABIP in 37 games with Binghamton last year.
While there are a number of different issues you could investigate, at its core, the biggest issue was this is a small sample size. With Gimenez being immensely talented, it is reasonable to assume at some point Gimenez was going to break out of this slump.
That was today, and Gimenez did it in a big way:
#Mets top prospect Andres Gimenez went 3-4 tonight with a pair of doubles and a long home run, his first of the season. pic.twitter.com/dDClsJ65dV
— Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) April 19, 2019
In a game started by Alex Faedo, the Tigers 10th best prospect as determined by MLB Pipeline, Gimenez was 3-for-4 with two runs, two doubles, a home run, an RBI, and a walk.
The homer was his first one in Double-A. The three extra base hits were more than what he had accumulated in his first seven games.
More than all of that, Gimenez looked locked in at the plate. We got a glimpse at a player some believe is a future top of the order hitter for the Mets. We also got to see some of the power some believe Gimenez will develop as he matures and ages.
Mostly, we got to see a terrific game from a Top 100 prospect. With games like this, you can see Gimenez will continue to push his way to the majors and be a successful player whenever he does get the call.
