Before the offseason even truly began, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns made one thing clear.<\/p>\n
Prospect outfielder Carson Benge would get a chance to compete for a big league job in spring training. Stearns said as much at the GM meetings in November.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Benge was the first player drafted by the Stearns front office, with the 19th overall pick in the 2024 draft. He starred as a two-way player at Oklahoma State, just like Mets top prospect Nolan McLean.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McLean made his mark on the mound and now ranks as the top pitching prospect in the game. Benge stars in the batter\u2019s box and ranks as the No. 3 outfield prospect in baseball.<\/p>\n
The two OSU alums maintain a strong connection. McLean was one of the first people Benge texted when he got drafted. \u201cHopefully, getting to play with him in MLB will be something special,\u201d Benge said.<\/p>\n
Benge opened the 2025 season at High-A Brooklyn and thrived. He reached Double-A Binghamton in late June and Triple-A Syracuse in mid August. He batted .281\/.385\/.472 with 15 home runs and 22 stolen bases in 116 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can really hit,\u201d one scout said when assessing Benge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In particular, he can really hit with two strikes. He hit six homers with a .611 OPS last year with two strikes. The MLB average OPS in that split is .512.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I have a good two-strike approach,\u201d Benge said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t bug me to hit with two strikes. It helps me do what I need to do. It helps me know not to expand.\u201d<\/p>\n
With pro success behind him and a future in the big leagues ahead\u2014most likely this season\u2014Benge spent his offseason preparing his body for the grind of a long season.<\/p>\n
He attended a Mets strength camp in the fall. He reported to spring training in early January to give himself the best shot to make the Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know when I get up there, my bat will be able to play, and my glove will be able to play,\u201d Benge said. \u201cI\u2019m focusing on staying healthy for the long season and doing what I can do to help my body.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the offseason even truly began, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns made one thing clear. Prospect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,2291,4,1586,3935],"class_list":{"0":"post-550738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-draft","12":"tag-organization-reports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116002397257871984","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}