Mets Prospect Carson Benge Earns Opening Day Roster Spot as Starting Right Fielder

Carson Benge spent exactly 24 games at Triple-A Syracuse before the New York Mets decided they had seen enough. Following a spring in which he checked every box the team asked of him, Benge made the Mets' Opening Day roster, with the team making the announcement Monday afternoon. He will be New York's starting right fielder Thursday at Citi Field against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Benge, 23, was a first-round pick, 19th overall, out of Oklahoma State in 2024. The No. 16 prospect in baseball, he will become the highest-ranked Mets prospect to debut since Francisco Alvarez in 2022. The promotion came just two years after he was drafted, a timeline that underscores how quickly the organization's belief in Benge solidified.

The organization's No. 2 prospect will start most days in right field after batting .366/.435/.439 with a double, a triple and a stolen base over 46 spring plate appearances. His plate discipline stood out throughout camp, with Mets officials pointing to his advanced approach and solid outfield jumps as reasons the decision became straightforward. The 23-year-old figures to hit near the bottom of New York's lineup at first, likely the eight hole, where he spent the final days of spring training.

Benge made three stops in the minors last season, from High-A (60 games) to Double-A (32 games) to Triple-A (24 games), hitting .281/.385/.472 with 25 doubles, seven triples, 15 homers, 73 RBI, 87 runs and 22 stolen bases. The leap from level to level was aggressive, and Triple-A was where things stalled somewhat: in 103 plate appearances at Syracuse, he posted a .583 OPS with three home runs. The spring erased those concerns in a hurry.

By the final week of camp, the right-field competition had come down to Benge and Mike Tauchman, a 35-year-old on a minor-league deal who was also enjoying a strong spring. But Tauchman tore the meniscus in his left knee in the team's penultimate Grapefruit League game, ending his roster bid and making Benge an even more obvious choice than he already was. It will be Tauchman's second knee surgery in six months; he tore the meniscus in his right knee last September and underwent a similar operation.

Manager Carlos Mendoza made clear that Benge had earned the job on his own terms before Tauchman went down. "It's a big day for the organization — a kid that gets drafted in 2024 and two years later, here we are, giving him the news that he's going to be playing in the big leagues for us," Mendoza told reporters before breaking camp in Port St. Lucie, Fla. "He earned it. He had a hell of a camp. We are all excited to watch this kid play."

Hitting coach Troy Snitker offered a window into what makes Benge's bat tick. "He moves the bat really fast, but he's a really good hitter, too," Snitker said. "He can beat you in multiple different ways. He can back a heater up and hit it hard over the shortstop's head, and man, you leave a mistake, and he can hit it 430 feet into the stands."

Benge joins an outfield that includes Juan Soto, who made clear this spring that he wants to chase down Shohei Ohtani and win NL MVP while shifting from right field to left, and Luis Robert Jr. in center, who hit 38 home runs in his last fully healthy campaign in 2023. For his MLB debut, Benge and the Mets will face Pirates ace and reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes. It is about as steep a first-day assignment as the sport can offer, and for a prospect who rose from college to Citi Field in under two years, that seems entirely appropriate.