“A.J.” might be “August Jolt” abbreviated for a certain Mets rookie, but only in terms of results.
A.J. Ewing has no reason to believe his season with the Mets will conclude any differently than the positive direction it has trended for most of the summer.
He entered Saturday with a .535 OPS for August that included a 9-for-48 (.188) batting average, but the 21-year-old outfielder hasn’t become an everyday player and the team’s leadoff hitter by showing less than maximum resolve.
“I am not enthusiastic with how the results have been recently, but I am more than uberconfident that I am going to turn it around and I am going to finish the year how I am going to finish,” Ewing said before the Mets faced the Nationals at Citi Field.
Overall, he owned a .255/.326/.386 slash line with seven homers and 28 RBIs in 82 games as play began. He’s joined Carson Benge to give the Mets a top one-two rookie outfield combination.
Ewing’s recent doldrums included a 2-for-23 (.087) skid over the previous week.
Could the grind of a major league season for the first time be taking a toll on Ewing?
“No, my body feels good, I feel good,” he said. “I would just say it’s part of the game and it’s stuff that you want to avoid as much as possible, but it’s just getting out of these little blips that is important.”
Interim manager Andy Green indicated he’s in no hurry to find extra rest for Ewing or Benge. Both have played almost every day with Juan Soto on the injured list, even with Luis Robert Jr. receiving occasional starts in center field.
“Ultimately they are going to end up with more at-bats than they have had in their career, and that is healthy for them, it is good for them,” Green said of Ewing and Benge. “If they end up with 10 more or 10 less or 20 more or 20 less, I think that will ultimately be determined by our feel and watching them perform and deciding if they just need a breather on a given day.
“They have got to fight through some things, and I know A.J. hasn’t had success on his batting line in the last week or so … he smoked the ball, hit it really well [Friday]. That was one of those days he could be 2-for-4 with a single and a double off the wall and you end up 0-for-4 and that is a frustrating day.”
Ewing said the positive reinforcement he’s receiving from the team’s hitting coaches has helped.
The message?
“Be really direct to the baseball, which is what I’m doing well when I’m doing good and just grinding through that and repeating that as much as possible.” Ewing said.
As much as he’s lagged offensively lately, Ewing hasn’t lost a step on defense, even in his shift to left field to help accommodate Robert in center.
“I feel like that is the one thing that has taken a big jump for me this year compared to last year and the year before,” Ewing said of his defense. “I feel like I am getting better reads off the bat than I have in the past. I feel like I am finishing the plays that I wasn’t finishing last year.”
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Ewing indicated he’s proud of the season he’s assembled, but hardly satisfied.
“If you had told me last year that I would be doing what I am doing now, I would probably be happy with it, but expectations change,” Ewing said. “Now that I am here, I feel that I can perform at a really high level and I want to do that to the best of my ability.”
