Carson Benge might have hit his way into the wrong spot in the NY Mets lineup

It wasn’t a tale of two seasons for Carson Benge. He had one lousy month and the rest of the season was pretty awesome for the New York Mets rookie. His .263 average in June was his second worst. Finishing April batting .189 was the low of his year while May, July, August, and September each included a batting average over .300.

He didn’t just poke the ball through by slapping hits. Benge went from a .402 slugging percentage in the first half to .471 in the second. On his way to hitting 20 home runs, he went into June with just 4.

The pop in the latter half of the year further justified his spot as the cleanup hitter. He’d 200 plate appearances in that spot in comparison to the leadoff role where he hit 227 times. While the numbers were superior in the cleanup spot, there was a point when the Mets were batting him leadoff when he was ice cold. He was batting .158 on April 17 when he got his first start atop the Mets lineup.

By adding some extra power, hitting 7 home runs in the cleanup spot to compete exactly with what he did as a leadoff hitter, Benge might have accidentally given the Mets enough of a reason to keep him in a less than ideal spot in the lineup.

Carson Benge is still the best fit to hit leadoff for the Mets

Francisco Lindor seems bound to get first ups for the Mets again in 2027 even though his numbers fall off in a big way after the first at-bat of the game. He was a .280/.333/.680 hitter in his 54 chances to begin a game. His overall leadoff numbers were less satisfying.

Out of the number one spot, Lindor slashed .205/.289/.393. The Mets didn’t experiment much with him. He had 29 games hitting second, 6 batting third, and 15 as the fourth hitter. The sample size was smaller for those spots and considering the Mets aren’t really built for him to hit in too wide of a variety of places, we can understand the preference to continue with him in the leadoff spot.

That doesn’t mean it’s right. Lindor hit .225/.309/.423. Somewhat quietly hitting 21 home runs in only 105 games, his tendencies and results definitely fit the style of what you’d more expect from a fourth hitter instead of someone batting first. Stealing just 3 bases while getting caught twice, Lindor pales in comparison to Benge when it comes to running the bases, at least last season.

Other than the higher tendency to hit a solo home run to start a game, Lindor has no actual added ability. Experience? Respect? Ego-stroking?

The Mets famously rearranged their lineup in 2024 for the best with Brandon Nimmo finally getting moved out of the leadoff spot. As he evolved, he became less of an on-base threat and more of a guy who’d hit the ball hard. Lindor is trending similarly. His 49.7% hard-hit rate in 2026 was the best of his career. The batting average, stolen bases, and OBP were new lows.

Ideally, A.J. Ewing is probably the guy you want hitting leadoff. Benge, in the meantime, seems to fit best but then comes the caveat of having the lefties back-to-back. The Mets’ preference for Juan Soto hitting second is yet another reason why Benge is lower in the order than he probably should be.

Baseball lineups don’t follow some kind of Samurai code and are ever-changing. Benge’s power is a little bit of a mystery with signs of becoming a 30 dinger guy eventually. In the meantime, the things he already does well like get on base and steal a bag might just benefit the club test if it does follow conventional thinking. If there’s an early lineup switcheroo the Mets make in 2027, it would be moving Benge to the leadoff spot and Lindor to cleanup.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow