New York Mets Minor League Hitter of the Year: Peter Alonso
Level(s): AA Binghamton, AAA Las Vegas
Stats: .285/.395/.579, 31 2B, 36 HR, 119 RBI, 76/128 BB/K
Peter Alonso has been crushing baseball since he came into the New York system as a 2nd round pick in 2016. Alonso opened with AA Binghamton in 2018, and he split his season fairly even between there and AAA Las Vegas.
Alonso can club the ball without question, and he has a very reasonable strikeout rate in the low 20% range. In 2018, that number was 22.3%. He does have one major bugaboo, though, and that is when he isn’t holding a bat.
Alonso has committed 28 errors at first base over his minor league career, and that’s just in 220 games. He will need significant improvement at first base just to be passable at the position. Participating in the Arizona Fall League this fall could be a chance for the Mets to showcase Alonso for an American League team.
Runners-up
Jeff McNeil was all the rage with New York Mets fans this summer, and for good reason. He put up an insane 2.3 bWAR in just 63 major league games. Before he was called up, he destroyed AA and AAA to the tune of .342/.411/.617 with 26 doubles and 19 home runs over 88 games.
The top prospect in the system, Andres Gimenez was more than just a scout’s favorite in 2018. Gimenez was just 19 through the majority of the season, turning 20 in September as the season closed. He played across high-A and AA, hitting .281/.347/.409 with 29 doubles, 5 triples, 6 home runs, and 38 stolen bases with a 31/92 BB/K ratio over 504 plate appearances. He’ll likely open 2019 in AA and work his way to AAA with a chance to spend some September time in the Big Apple.
After two seasons in the DSL, diminutive (5’8″, 175-pounds) 2B Luis Santana came stateside, skipping over the Gulf Coast League straight to the Appy League, where he hit .348/.446/.471 with Kingsport, slapping out 13 doubles and 4 home runs and adding 8 steals with a 27/23 BB/K ratio over 242 plate appearances.