The New York Mets jump-started their two-out rally during the seventh inning on Thursday night with a stolen base.<\/p>\n
If such a sentence doesn\u2019t meet the criteria for attaching siren emoji, it\u2019s awfully close. Unlike last year, when they stole as if the bases belonged to them, the Mets don\u2019t attempt many stolen bases. When they do try, they are often caught.<\/p>\n
Carson Benge\u2019s swipe of second base was the Mets\u2019 first stolen base attempt in six games. The steal helped New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies, too. Benge scooted to third base on a wild pitch before scoring on a hard-hit single for the go-ahead run.<\/p>\n
The Mets (34-41) have bigger problems than baserunning. They reside near the bottom of the wild-card standings because their offense ranked so poorly for so long in several important offensive categories, and their starting rotation became paper-thin. As they search for ways to win games and make up ground before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, however, the Mets could look to leverage more of their speed.<\/p>\n
Why it’s too early to talk about the MLB trade deadline<\/p>\n
Ken Rosenthal<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an area where we definitely have to get better,\u201d Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.<\/p>\n
In a drastic year-over-year change, the Mets have gone from the best base-stealing team to one of the worst.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the Mets led Major League Baseball in stolen base percentage (89 percent).<\/p>\n
In 2026, the Mets are 29th out of 30 teams in stolen base percentage (68 percent).<\/p>\n
Some people within the Mets expect the rate to improve as rookie outfielders Benge and A.J. Ewing gain experience. Benge ranks in the 84th percentile in sprint speed<\/a>, per Baseball Savant, while Ewing is in the 96th percentile<\/a>.<\/p>\n Benge made the Mets\u2019 Opening Day roster and is 11-for-13 as a base stealer, but he has attempted a steal just five times since first being caught on May 14 (a span of 33 games). Ewing was a prolific base stealer in the upper minor leagues (over 58 games across Double A and Triple A, he went 29-for-32), but after arriving in the major leagues on May 12, he is just 7-for-10.<\/p>\n \u201cJust with personnel, Ewing and Benge being really fast guys. With more experience under their belts, they\u2019re going to feel more comfortable,\u201d Mets first base coach Gilbert Gomez said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s us, helping them out, putting them in position.\u201d<\/p>\n Gomez, of course, represents another significant change within the context of the Mets\u2019 base-stealing numbers. He replaced Antoan Richardson, who spent the prior two seasons as the Mets\u2019 first-base and baserunning coach before taking the same position with the rival Atlanta Braves.<\/p>\n Richardson bolting for the Braves over the offseason explains only some of the wild discrepancy between the two seasons. He was great at his job, studying opposing pitchers\u2019 tendencies and connecting with the Mets\u2019 players, but the Braves aren\u2019t all that much better than the Mets in this particular area, successfully stealing just 71 percent of the time.<\/p>\n Also, a couple of longtime base coaches said that being forced to stay inside their designated boxes this season has mitigated their influence, perhaps leading to some regression, because they cannot see tips and tells as easily. The league average is 76 percent (it was 78 percent in 2025), the lowest figure since the new rules, which include a limit on pickoff attempts, were implemented in 2023.<\/p>\n Both things can be true: Richardson was a major reason for the Mets\u2019 successful stealing last year, and the reasons that they now lag also extend beyond the coaching change.<\/p>\n A sampling of reasons based on observations, along with conversations with rival scouts and Mets coaches:<\/p>\n \u2022 In a weird trend, the Mets were oversliding bags a handful of times early in the season. In other words, they would\u2019ve been safe, but came off the bag upon sliding and were tagged out. This happened with Brett Baty on May 1 and Tyrone Taylor on May 6. Gomez said that the club discussed the problem in meetings earlier in the season. It hasn\u2019t been an issue lately.<\/p>\n \u2022 Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto have combined for just eight stolen bases. Last year, Lindor racked up 31 stolen bases while Soto led the National League with 38. Both players had calf injuries this season. Soto returned on April 22, but isn\u2019t running with the same frequency (6-f0r-9). Lindor hasn\u2019t played in a game since April 22. He is expected back next week. Even with a new first-base coach and different personnel, Mendoza said opposing teams are ultra-aware of the Mets on the bases.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Mets simply made bad decisions. Sometimes, one of their younger players picked the wrong pitch. Other times, a veteran tried to make something happen. \u201cThere have also been times where we have been ultra-aggressive in situations where we thought we had something and didn\u2019t,\u201d Mendoza said.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Mets haven\u2019t had as many opportunities to steal. New York has had 958 plate appearances through which a runner was on first or second with the next base open, the third-fewest opportunities in MLB. Also, the Mets have spent much of their time trailing, making it unwise to attempt a steal in some situations.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery out matters,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cThe last thing you want is to be giving outs away on the bases.\u201d<\/p>\n Ewing and Benge offer a different dynamic, however. Mendoza has started calling for more double-steals and hit-and-run plays. They\u2019re a threat, as long as they play it smart. To that end, Ewing said he is putting in more pregame work studying pitchers\u2019 moves and tendencies when it comes to slide steps and multiple pickoffs.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s game provided just one example, but Benge made a difference with his stolen base. When Benge and\/or Ewing occupy a base, it\u2019s also a distraction for the pitcher (coincidence or not, there was the wild pitch on Thursday after Benge\u2019s steal and Mark Vientos walked while Benge was on third base). If a pitcher is worried about being quicker to the plate, there could be a greater chance of making a mistake with location. It\u2019s a small thing. The Mets, however, are in a spot where every little thing matters.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can change a game,\u201d Mendoza said, \u201cevery time they\u2019re on the bases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Mets jump-started their two-out rally during the seventh inning on Thursday night with a stolen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,1830,85],"class_list":["post-749300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}