Rosario Getting Mets Fans Excited Again

After his warm-up act in Colorado, Mets shortstop Amed Rosario is finally coming to the bright lights of New York.  He’s going to run out of the dugout before the top of the first, and he’s going to go to that area between second and third base.  That’s the area that should belong to him for the next decade.  Maybe more.

Already, we have seen glimpses why everyone is so high on Rosario.  You’d be hard pressed to name a Mets player over the past decade who is as athletic as he is.  We’ve seen him go from home to third quicker than anyone over the past three seasons.  We’ve seen him make plays in the hole that no Mets shortstop since perhaps Rey Ordonez could have even contemplated making a play.  We’ve also seen him adapt.

Nothing speaks more to that than the grounders hit by Trevor Story on Tuesday and Wednesday.  On Tuesday, Rosario took a less direct route, and he tapped his glove before throwing to first.  Story would be safe on the bang-bang play.  On Wednesday, Rosario took a more direct route and threw on the run.  This time, Story was out on the bang-bang play.

It tells you a lot about a player who can adapt that quickly.

It also tells you alot about him the way he reacted to another tough play from that Tuesday game.  Rosario was in no man’s land on a DJ LeMahieu groundball.  He broke to cover second because it was his responsibility to cover the position.  With the ball in play, he broke back, but he could only get a glove on it.  From there, Nolan Arenado would hit an RBI single ending the game.  It was a tough play that caused Jay Bruce, Neil Walker, and Terry Collins to reach out and speak to him after the game.

If the play truly bothered him, we saw no ill effects from Rosario.  He played just as well over the next two games.  In fact, he hit triples in consecutive games to spark the Mets offense.  He was also flawless in the field again making plays we haven’t see a Mets shortstop make in 20 years.

Rosario is here, and so far he’s been everything we thought he could be.  Actually, that’s wrong.  He’s more than that.  He’s already shown the ability to put the tough plays behind him and learn from difficult plays.

In this tough 2017 season where it is has been difficult to watch the Mets at times.  We now have Rosario, who with this ability and effort level makes watching games for a team playing out the string worthwhile. Between him, Michael Conforto, and soon Dominic Smith, the Mets are showing us a young core of position players who can return the Mets to the postseason as soon as next year.

It’s time to get excited about the Mets again.