On Saturday, interim manager Andy Green promised that A.J. Ewing would “punch back” amid a minislump.
The rookie outfielder may have been listening, because he has responded in a major way.
At the time, Ewing was in a 3-for-22 slide with eight strikeouts. He was expanding the zone after being so patient early on in his big league career. Since then, he has found his groove, going 5-for-10 with five runs scored and three stolen bases.
The Mets lineup won all three games he started — Ewing was given the nightcap of Wednesday’s doubleheader off against the Braves.
“I feel good and have felt good about him as a competitor,” Green said before the Mets opened a four-game series against the Marlins at Citi Field on Thursday night. “He doesn’t carry a lot of fear with him into the batter’s box. As I mentioned, you go through stretches throughout the course of the season where walks come in bunches, strikeouts come in bunches, home runs come in bunches. It was just a matter of time before he had more winning at-bats. We saw that the last couple of days. He doesn’t take fear into the box. He’s in a good spot right now.”
Ewing, 21, has been a major bright spot in an otherwise dismal season for the last-place Mets. Along with fellow rookie outfielder Carson Benge and young starting pitchers Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Zac Thornton, Ewing has provided reasons to believe a better future is ahead in Queens.
In 68 games, Ewing is slashing a solid .273/.344/.417 with a .762 OPS, seven home runs and 14 stolen bases. He has a WAR of 2.7, according to Baseball-Reference.
The Mets’ fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft has become a mainstay in the leadoff spot and has impressed in the outfield. This wasn’t expected, with Ewing starting the year at Double-A Binghamton. Injuries and underperformance forced the Mets’ hand and he has run with the opportunity.
“We expected him to get more than 12 games at Triple-A, I think that’s very fair to say,” Green said. “Did we believe that the shortness of the swing and the athlete would play quickly in the big leagues? How quickly no one ever really knows. I certainly believe he had attributes that you can point to and believe pretty strongly that was going to have respectable early returns. He’s done better than that. I’m not shocked by that by any stretch. But it’s definitely been a quality start to a young major league career.”
The next few days are all about Monday’s trade deadline for the Mets, and what president of baseball operations David Stearns can get in return for the team’s assets that include Freddy Peralta, Clay Holmes, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, Luis Robert Jr., A.J. Minter and Huascar Brazobán.
Then, it will turn to the future. Ewing is a big part of that.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
