Josh Holliday is five minutes into his answer about Carson Benge when he drops the ultimate compliment.
Carson Benge, he says, is a baseball player.
And then Holliday provides about as good a definition of the old scouting cliche as you’ve ever heard.
“He could have played in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s,” says Holliday, who coached Benge at Oklahoma State. “He could have played all eight positions. He could pitch, he could hit, he plays hurt. He laughs and has fun, but he takes it serious. He doesn’t overthink it, yet he’s a very smart player.
“This guy is just a baseball player.”
When Benge trots out to right field at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, he will be the first New York Mets rookie to debut on Opening Day since Pete Alonso in 2019. It’s a role he earned by placing himself on the radar with a breakthrough 2025 season in the minors, and one he secured with an outstanding spring training.
There will be a lot coming at Benge now, and we don’t just mean Paul Skenes on Thursday afternoon. New York is a daunting place; to steal a line from Steve Cohen, it’s not fond of people learning on its dime. Breaking in as a rookie is never easy. It’s harder still at a time when the Mets face extra pressure to win, to wash away the stain of a disappointing 2025.
Talk to anyone who knows Benge, though, and they find the kid from Yukon, Okla., uniquely suited to that challenge.
“I don’t think Carson’s going to be waking up in the morning reading the newspaper, curious to see what’s written about him,” Holliday said. “He’s going to go to the field and play ball because that’s what he loves to do. There are some personality types that are pleasers, who want to be embraced and read the great things people say about them and probably won’t be able to handle the criticism. And some guys don’t walk to that beat. They do what they do, and they do it in a way where they’re comfortable.”
Trey Cobb scouted Benge for the Mets and now works at Oklahoma State.
“One of the things I asked him when I first interviewed him: Is there anything nervous about New York?” Cobb remembered. “He smiled so big: ‘Nope, not at all.’ There you go.”
“He has elite confidence and is just very sure of himself in everything he does,” said Drew Blake, Benge’s teammate and roommate at Oklahoma State. “I’m sure it can be really difficult to play in New York sometimes, but his confidence will help him follow his process.”
Cobb, who pitched in the Mets’ minor-league system, put it this way.
“What was so cool about him, a lot of guys worry about things that don’t really matter,” he said. “If you or me were going to our first big-league spring training, I would text somebody that I knew, ‘What are you wearing? What time are you getting there? Where’s the locker room?’ He’s just going to show up. It would never cross his mind to think about all those minute details that really don’t matter. He’s just so secure. That’s why I thought he would fit the best.”
“He didn’t really have a lot of bad days,” said Robin Ventura, the former Met who has served as a volunteer assistant coach at Oklahoma State. “He always shows up happy, ready to play, competes great. I’m extremely happy for him. I love the kid.”
That attitude applies on the field as much as off. Victor Romero, an assistant coach at Oklahoma State, likes to call Benge “free-minded.”
“He’s a baseball rat,” Romero said. “He loves baseball, he knows baseball. He probably won’t talk about it as much as people want. He knows who he is, he actually has a plan and an approach, he knows himself.”
Romero talked about rounds of batting practice tailored to specific game situations. Tell Benge to hit the ball the other way, and the next five would be line drives to left. Tell him to get a runner over from second, and he’d rip one down the right-field line.
“He had a swing and a way that he moved that has the beauty of being natural to him and yet thankfully uncoached to where the instincts are still his,” Holliday said. “It’s still very much a beautiful swing.”
“You didn’t really have to do a lot with him as a hitter,” Ventura said. “There were things there he just innately knew how to do, and you didn’t want to mess with it. He just gets things quick.”
Though Benge is generally quiet in interviews, he was a vibrant part of the Oklahoma State clubhouse — and he’s carried that over to the Mets.
“When people get to know him at first, they’re going to say he’s quiet. But get him in the clubhouse, and he’s around his circle of friends and in his comfort zone, you can’t get him to stop,” Romero said. “If you’re on his team, you love him. He brings passion, he brings a looseness. He’s really funny.”
“He enjoys team things,” Ventura said. “It’s not going to be this year, but in the future, he’s going to be one of those guys that guys want to be around. Everyone here was that way when he was in school. He was the tone of your dugout.”
“He’s not a fancy kid; he’s real,” Holliday said. “He’s a very real person. He’s kind of what you want, honestly.”
“He’s super relaxed,” Blake said. “He’s a pretty normal guy.”
And when Benge does dig into that box against the reigning Cy Young Award winner Skenes? Don’t expect him to be nervous.
“I’ve never seen him intimidated,” Cobb said, “and I don’t think he would be intimidated.”
“He never put a whole lot of stock into who was on the other side of the competition. He just knew,” Holliday said, “he would be ready.”