NEW YORK \u2014 Desperately in need of turning their season around, the New York Mets plan to call up top prospect A.J. Ewing ahead of Tuesday\u2019s game, league sources told The Athletic on Monday.<\/p>\n
This is an aggressive promotion. The Mets, however, needed to make a bold move. With a few notable injuries, their lineup contains too many holes and too many journeymen soaking up spots. Also, Ewing has performed at a high level.<\/p>\n
With Carson Benge in the major leagues, Ewing, who bats from the left side, is the club\u2019s best position-player prospect in the minors. He has played just 12 games at Triple A, where he has hit .326. He started the season in Double A and had a 1.052 OPS at the level while playing strong defense in center field.<\/p>\n
Ewing, a fourth-round pick by New York, is the No. 4-ranked prospect<\/a> in the Mets\u2019 system, per The Athletic\u2019s Keith Law. He ranked No. 98 on Law\u2019s Top 100 list<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old is known for his speed and contact ability. This year, evaluators say he has offered elite defense in center field and is starting to tap into more power. Ewing is not on the Mets\u2019 40-man roster. People familiar with the Mets\u2019 decision-making say the club is hopeful his plus-defense and base running will provide a needed energy boost.<\/p>\n The Mets (15-25) own MLB\u2019s worst record. They have shortstop Francisco Lindor, designated hitter\/first baseman Jorge Polanco and center fielder Luis Robert Jr. on the injured list. All three players lack concrete timetables for a return. Their offense is last in several categories, including OPS and wRC+.<\/p>\n In the outfield, the Mets could start Ewing and Benge at center field and right field, with Juan Soto at left field or designated hitter. Other possibilities in the Mets\u2019 outfield include MJ Melendez, Tyrone Taylor and Austin Slater.<\/p>\n With Lindor out and Ewing now part of the outfield mix, the Mets could use Brett Baty more at third base, his natural position, while Bo Bichette handles some shortstop opportunities. Ewing can also play second base and the corner outfield spots, though he has excelled in center field.<\/p>\n He had a breakout season last year and slashed .315\/.401\/.429 in 564 plate appearances over three levels. Despite just 28 games at Double A last year, the Mets invited him to major-league spring training, clearly viewing him as a viable option at some point. They just probably weren\u2019t banking on it being the second full week of May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Desperately in need of turning their season around, the New York Mets plan to call…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":790012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,1305,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-790011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-new-york-mets","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116559064970113616","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}