Weak NY Mets position appears to have an incoming strength on one side of the ball

MLB.com’s Joe Trezza took a look at the best tools within the New York Mets farm system. There weren’t a whole lot of surprises. All of the names in there were ones we were familiar with.

Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, and Brandon Sproat had regular mentions. From the position player group, there were few surprises with maybe one of the biggest being Elian Pena as the honorable mention for power behind Ryan Clifford.

One conclusion to draw from the story was how well the Mets look at one of their weakest positions in the big leagues currently. It’s always easy to measure a prospect’s pitching abilities or offense. What’s much harder is their defense. Luckily for the Mets, they appear to have two really good options, at the very least from a defensive standpoint, coming to center field.

The two best-rated defensive players are center field candidates which bodes well for the Mets

You’ve heard plenty about Carson Benge. He’s a strong spring training and a little faith away from breaking camp with the team. Then there’s A.J. Ewing who made a name for himself last year. A more natural center fielder because of his amazing speed, it’s Ewing who rates as the best defender in the Mets’ system with Benge as the honorable mention.

Talk about a good problem to have. The Mets have had difficulty finding one good center fielder. It looks like they could soon have a pair vying for starts at the position.

Defense was the only place where Ewing got a mention. However, his impressive offensive season led by a .315 batting average (including .339 in Double-A) along with 70 stolen bases has him right there among others in the tools. If there was a second-runner up in some of these ratings, he’d be the guy.

More immediately helpful for the Mets is what Benge can bring. He has the best rated arm and hit tools. His third mention is the runner-up in defense to Ewing.

Benge would be a natural to align with the Mets’ plans for the coming year. As a left-handed hitter, he’s a good fit to even platoon with Tyrone Taylor in center field early on and allow him to face mostly right-handed pitchers. He took care of business against them last year with predictably splits. He slashed .295/.379/.512 against them.

There can come a point where the Mets have to ponder about who is the better choice in center field. Ewing seems to be the better solution there, in particular because his bat doesn’t quite measure up offensively to be anything else. Benge would probably be a better fit in a corner outfield position. Unless they’re moving Juan Soto to left field (they should think about it), we can expect him to fit in over there, unless of course they land a veteran for that spot.