It's not just the big league NY Mets hitters teams aren't afraid of in 2026

The big story on Sunday’s win for the New York Mets was the decision by the San Francisco Giants to intentionally walk Juan Soto to get to Bo Bichette. It was the 10th time this season Soto was given a free pass by way of the IBB. He had 13 intentional walks in 2025 and several others, even Jeff McNeil with 4, had a crooked number of some kind.

That hasn’t been the case for the Mets in 2026. Other than Soto, nobody other than Francisco Alvarez and Carson Benge were issued an intentional walk all season. Each with one, it’s an epidemic throughout the entire system.

Taking a look at Mets minor leaguers as well, only Elian Pena has more than one intentional walk in 2026. Is that unique to the Mets or are other teams just unafraid throughout the system?

The Mets organization barely has any intentional walks this season

It’s not all that out of the ordinary to have few minor leaguers with multiple intentional walks. In the minors, pitchers are supposed to get through those difficult situations.

There are some recent examples of Mets minor leaguers drawing automatic free passes on more than one occasion. Ryan Clifford had 3 intentional walks in 2024. Benge had a pair in 2025, one in High-A and another in Double-A. A.J. Ewing had one at two different levels for a total of 2 in 2025 as well.

The minor league season is either already over or near it for most teams. Other than some last-second intentional walk, it doesn’t seem as if the Mets will have too many invitees to the “I was intentionally walked more than once this year” party.

Intentional walks aren’t always easy to predict. Soto is often a candidate to be among the league leaders when healthy. This year, with Bichette looking beatable, Francisco Lindor having Soto behind him in the lineup, and no other candidates to pose a large enough threat.

Just because the Mets haven’t played in a meaningful game for themselves in months doesn’t mean other teams would refuse to intentionally walk. The fact that the most recent international walk came in a game against one of the few MLB teams with a worse record than the Mets, the Giants, shows how random they can indeed be.

The lack of intentional walks at the major league level is unique for this ball club because every year in his career, Pete Alonso had 4 or more. In 2022, he had a league-high 16.

To have only a single minor leaguer with multiple intentional walks is the real oddity. It’s a bit of a testament to how much several of their players have fallen or failed to develop as well as the lack of competitiveness from many. Only two Mets minor league teams will finish this year above .500 with one of their DSL ball clubs just a pair over even.

For some comparison, their minor leaguers have combined for 16 total intentional walks this year. In 2025, there were 23 intentional walks across all minor league teams. Added in with the drop from 28 to 12 at the major league level, pitchers have made Mets hitters at all levels “earn it.”

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