Two swings made the NY Mets RF competition get more interesting

Everyone is probably rooting for Carson Benge to win the New York Mets right field job. Many would accept Mike Tauchman. MJ Melendez? A two home run game on Friday alerted everyone as to why the Mets signed him in the first place.

An ex-catcher turned outfielder with poor outfield range but a great arm, he was an unexpected Mets addition simply because of how he failed to make sense for the ball club on a major league contract. His deal, a split one, will pay him different salaries for time spent in the majors vs. minors. It’s a clever decoy to help pass him through waivers in a worse-case scenario. However, with the spring he’s having, the Mets should instead take advantage of the remaining minor league option he has left. That’s if he doesn’t make the team out of camp.

The Mets right field competition is getting exciting

Benge is hitting .400 with nothing but singles. Melendez has as many hits, 4, but 2 are home runs and another is a double. Tauchman is just 1 for 3 but with a home run and 3 RBI.

Like the election polls at noon in any divided town, it’s still too close to call.

Amazingly, this right field competition doesn’t even include Brett Baty who has yet to debut this spring. Thought of as the top choice over Benge until the Tauchman signing, Melendez’s powerful spring is at least making him a candidate.

A problem the Mets may quickly run into is an abundance of outfielders. Their 40-man roster has a lot of them. Not even really in the conversation for Opening Day, prospect Nick Morabito and Jared Young look to begin the year in the minor leagues. Morabito is more of a center fielder anyway. Young is a left fielder the Mets would probably prefer as a DH option anyway.

Complicating things further is how many of these guys hit left-handed. Baty, Benge, Tauchman, Melendez, and Young all swing from that side of the plate. There’s no easy platoon situation to create.

Only one week of spring training games in the books, the Mets don’t appear any closer to a final decision. The tough part will be imagining how they can possibly carry all of these outfielders on their 40-man roster especially with Benge and Tauchman not even there yet.

Melendez needs to continue to hit like this to have a shot at the Opening Day roster which, frankly, would need to take a red hot bat for another 3 weeks and an ice cold one from Benge and Tauchman to become a true conversation. The Baty factor as well, with him penciled in for right field innings, complicates things more.

Who would’ve thought the most unanswered question for the Mets roster would have so many intriguing choices on February 27th? Keep hitting. Make it a choice where no answer is wrong.