{"id":642201,"date":"2026-03-25T06:52:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/642201\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T06:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:52:28","slug":"mets-reveal-the-moment-carson-benge-made-the-team-in-new-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/642201\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets reveal the moment Carson Benge made the team in new video"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mets announced Carson Benge as their starting right fielder<\/a> Monday.<\/p>\n

But the story behind the announcement is even better.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the team released behind-the-scenes video of Benge finding out his fate. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza brought Benge into his office to give him the good news.<\/p>\n

Mendoza first started his spiel.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou carry yourself like a big leaguer. You play like a freaking big leaguer,\u201d he told the rookie.<\/p>\n

Then, he finished with one question.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come to Citi Field, you take batting practice, what was going through your head that day?\u201d Mendoza asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHoly s\u2013t, I want to be here,\u201d Benge responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, guess what? On Thursday, you\u2019re gonna get that opportunity,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cYou made the team, you\u2019re gonna be in the lineup, you\u2019re gonna be playing right field for the New York Mets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision came after Benge had a phenomenal spring training in Port St. Lucie, where he hit .366 with an .874 OPS in 14 games. His chances were also improved when outfielder Mike Tauchman suffered a torn meniscus<\/a> in his left knee.<\/p>\n

\"ACarson Benge has hit over .350 in 14 Grapefruit League games this spring. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

In the offseason, the Mets also shipped off Brandon Nimmo<\/a> to the Rangers, leaving an outfield of Juan Soto, Tyrone Taylor, Luis Robert Jr. and potentially Brett Baty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy that I carried myself in a really good way,\u201d Benge said<\/a>. \u201cI showed everyone what kind of person I am and I feel like that is what spoke the loudest for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoy over everything, I would say,\u201d Benge later added of how he felt after receiving the news.<\/p>\n

Last year, Benge split time between High-A Brooklyn, Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse. He had a batting average over .300 and on-base percentage over .400 at both High-A and Double-A but struggled in Syracuse, albeit in just 24 games.<\/p>\n

\"ACarson Benge will likely start next to Juan Soto and Luis Robert Jr. in the outfield on Opening Day. Getty Images<\/p>\n

He slashed .178\/.272\/.311 in 103 plate appearances, though his improvement this spring outweighs those numbers.<\/p>\n

As Mendoza alluded to, Benge will likely mostly play right field, but the Mets also said he could rotate into center when Robert needs a day off.<\/p>\n

His first MLB action won\u2019t be easy, though \u2014 he\u2019ll face Paul Skenes and the Pirates on Opening Day Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mets announced Carson Benge as their starting right fielder Monday. But the story behind the announcement is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,5805,101,4,18513,1690,61,2548,4203,185],"class_list":["post-642201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-baseball","tag-carson-benge","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-opening-day","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116288498985546000","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642201","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=642201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}