Mets Carson Benge embracing surge into challenging NL Rookie of the Year race: Definitely do want it
Over the past month, Carson Benge’s case has strengthened.Over the past 28 games entering play Sunday, the Mets outfielder carved out a place in the National League’s Rookie of the Year race with a .952 OPS and an NL-leading 38 hits.
Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.Benge hasn’t thought about his name continuing to pop up in chatter surrounding the award, but “[I] definitely do want it,” he told The Post before the Mets (61-76) lost 6-3 to the Astros.
If he won the honor, it’d make him the first Met to do so since Pete Alonso in 2019 and just the third rookie from the franchise this century to take it, joining Alonso and Jacob deGrom (2014).But he’ll need to surge past the other candidates, including the Cardinals’ JJ Wetherholt, the Reds’ Sal Stewart and the Mets’ Nolan McLean, and extend his own tear across the final month of the season.“It’d be cool,” Benge said before going 0-for-4 as the Mets capped a six-game homestand at Citi Field.
“There’s plenty of good rookies around the NL, with one being in our locker room and the conversation, too, but it’d be pretty cool to win it over all those guys.”It’ll be challenging for Benge to separate from the field.Wetherholt, the St.
Louis infielder who went on the injured list Sunday with right wrist tendinitis, has hit .242 with a .743 OPS and the sixth-best bWAR among NL position players (4.6).Stewart, 22, just became the first Reds rookie in franchise history to record a season with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs, and he entered play Sunday with an MLB-leading 104 RBIs — one of two players in the league to hit the century mark.
And McLean, who stumbled early in the season, has collected a 1.76 ERA across his last 11 starts, with the most recent one unfolding Saturday when he allowed just two hits and an unearned run against the Astros.But then there’s Benge, who has impres...