Mets rookie Carson Benge's highlight catches could be just the beginning of his defensive prowess

Every outfield is its own monster — jutting walls, cavernous expanses, tricky winds, and Carson Benge is prepared to joust with them all.

There was Oracle Park last month — whose positioning by the water and swirling wind patterns make it one of the most difficult outfields to defend in baseball. There was Wrigley, where the wind there, too, creates havoc among the ivy. And there was Coors Field just this past week — the biggest outfield in the league, with that thin Rocky Mountain air that carries balls further than you’d expect.

But the rookie shrugs, trots out to whatever outfield position the Mets have designated him for that day, and “I treat it like shagging,” he told Newsday in Phoenix this past weekend.

“I feel like that kind of freeness has helped me out a little…It’s probably something I’ve always had — doing my best and living with the results, as long as I’m trying my hardest.”

You could quibble with that statement.

One: While Benge certainly treats it like shagging fly balls, what he’s often doing is laying out in defiance of gravity — bailing out to make low-probability catches that have, in just two months in the big leagues, made him one of the better defensive outfielders in baseball — two outs above average, per Baseball Savant.

Two of the more impressive instances came on this past road trip. With one out in the ninth in Anaheim, Benge covered a huge swath of ground in right and appeared to reach behind him as he dove — making a catch that seemed to surprise even him (he put his own hands on his head when he came up with the ball). The next diving catch came a day later in centerfield in Coors, robbing Tyler Freeman of an extra-base hit on a ball that came off the bat at 102.1 mph.

Now, you can quibble with another thing Benge said. He mentioned his freeness, but first base and outfield coach Gilbert Gomez, who managed Benge in High-A Brooklyn last year, classified it as “fearlessness.”

“He’s not afraid,” Gomez told Newsday. “He’s out there trying to make plays. He goes for it, which is the one thing you can’t really teach — his instinct…He goes out there and listens and takes the information with him, but I feel like the biggest thing that he has is that he plays fearless…

“His main objective is to try to make plays and that helps him get past the fact that some of these [outfields] are kind of weird.”

So, to recap, Benge, who was in Single-A just last year, is dealing with new terrain, the pressure of being a fast-tracked rookie on a team with high expectations they aren't close to meeting, and doing so while rotating through all three outfield positions.

And the thing is, Gomez said, signs point to the fact that he’s only going to get better. The coach praised Benge’s quick first step and overall speed. His route running, which Baseball Savant classifies as average, will likely improve as he gets more accustomed to new environments, and becomes a more seasoned player. Right now, they’re working on his release — he takes a hair too long on the transfer, meaning he’s not getting the most out of a cannon arm that ranks in the 97th percentile.

He’s made three “four-star” catches — classified as plays with a 26-50% catch probability — and one five-star catch, a ball with less than a 25% probability of being caught.

“Experience will be the biggest thing,” Gomez said. “But he has a knack for not only diving, but keeping the ball in front of him…so even if he doesn’t get it, somehow he manages to knock it down. But he’s not afraid of being overly aggressive.”

It’s worked for Benge on both sides of the plate. After a very sluggish offensive start — he spent over a month batting under .200 before finally cracking that plateau on May 6 — Benge is hitting .333 over the past seven games, with three doubles, a homer and five RBIs. He also seemed to figure out where he was going wrong.

It’s about “just quality at bats — not caring whether it ends in a good result or a bad result,” he said after his 1-for-2 game with two walks against the Angels on May 3. A day later, against the Rockies, he added, “You just go out there and your mind is blank. You play the game as hard as you can, not worrying about anything.”

Carlos Mendoza also noted that “it’s tougher when you’ve got a lot of guys going through [a slump] at the same time and you’re the new guy on the team, the youngest guy.”

That’s a ripe environment for overthinking, and that’s simply not Benge’s game. To wit, sometimes he doesn’t even know he’s going to dive for a ball until he’s about to do it.

“I’ll know in the last few steps if I have a chance on it or not, so deciding whether to dive or pull up on it has been pretty easy so far,” he said. “It’s kind of just whatever I’m feeling at the moment.”

And so he takes flight, extends his glove, makes the catch, and glides through the grass.

By the way, does it hurt?

“Not yet,” he said, laughing.

Though if precedent is any indicator, he wouldn't be scared if it did.