Luis Guillorme Has Been Ready for This
Most Mets fans could have told you that a while ago...
Image credit: Chris Simon
If you’ve been watching Luis Guillorme ply his trade over the last few seasons, none of what he’s doing now should be coming as a surprise.
Whether it be his penchant for making contact or his magician’s work with the leather, the Mets’ 27-year-old everyman is doing everything these days extremely well. And his contributions to the first-place Metropolitans have been invaluable.
A quick note on Guillorme’s fielding exploits before moving ahead. Truthfully, this kinda says it all:
Stick him at the keystone, give Francisco Lindor or Eduardo Escobar a spell at shortstop or third, wherever he’s needed… Luis Guillorme is there. Can’t put a price tag on that. Now onto that oh-so-impressive lumber he’s been swinging.
Guillorme carrying a .324/.410/.426 (149 wRC+) batting line through his first 80 plate appearances is not something most could have predicted. We’ll take it, for sure. But you’re lying if you’re saying you expected him to produce at this level, this consistently, while also taking full ownership of his role in the process.
The overlapping of the Mets eating Robinson Canó’s contract and Guillorme taking on (and running with) additional responsibilities was not a coincidence. Guillorme made it crystal clear that he was ready for this and the Mets acted accordingly.
Good on them.
We spoke in December about the body of work he’s put together during his time here and how it was past high time for Guillorme to get a fair shake. It’s been an arduous road, at best.
Former Mets skippers Mickey Callaway and Luis Rojas both, at times, talked up Guillorme as anywhere from a more-than-viable to uber-important depth piece before mostly burying him on their respective benches.
You’d think a .286/.390/.349 line over 224 very intermittent at-bats through 2020 and 2021 would have turned more heads. Alas…
Enter Buck Showalter. From March:
Man, this guy’s baseball instincts are just impeccable. And what has Guillorme done with the opportunities his skipper’s afforded him? Everything.
In addition to the sterling line noted above, Guillorme’s hitting .429/.484/.464 over his last 11 games (3 K, 32 PA) and, in an extremely welcome turn of events, he’s tuning up lefties this year at a .278/.316/.333 clip. Told you he could hit southpaws.
Rock-solid roster depth is a necessity for any ballclub with the heightened aspirations this group holds. Canó may have given you something in that department down the road, but Luis Guillorme checks that box — multiple, actually — nightly, and with gusto.
It’s about time the Mets took notice.
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Yes & Amen to every single syllable of this wonderful read!! I loved how Luis answered a beat reporter's question last week in his post-game interview with the matter-of-fact reply (me paraphrasing)....."This is who I am, it's what I'm used to. My whole career has been about being ready off the bench." It's about time his bright light gets noticed by ALL! He's beyond gifted and special...... and he's ours!!