Amed Rosario

German Amed Rosario Valdez

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 190 lb.

• Debut August 1, 2017

• Born November 20, 1995 in Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional D.R.

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Biographical Information

Shortstop Amed Rosario was signed by the New York Mets as an international free agent before the 2013 season. He began playing that year with the Kingsport Mets of the Appalachian League where he hit .241/.279/.358 in 58 games. In 2014, he played for the Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York-Penn League and the Savannah Sand Gnats of the South Atlantic League, hitting a combined .274/.320/.372 in 75 games. In 2015, the Mets promoted him to Advanced Class A, with the St. Lucie Mets, to begin the year and he handled the level well enough to also play a couple of games in AA with the Binghamton Mets. At St. Lucie, he hit .257/.307/.335 in 103 games.

The 2016 season was the one in which Amed truly emerged as a top prospect. Starting the year back at St. Lucie, he hit .309 in 66 games, and then scorched the Eastern League with Binghamton, to the tune of a .341 BA in 54 games. He payed for the World Team in the 2016 Futures Game and finished the year with a combined line of .324/.374/.459 in 120 games. He began to show promising power with 24 doubles, 13 triples and 5 homers, scored 65 runs and drove in 71. His 5 homers matched his total for his first three pro seasons. In 2017, he was assigned to the AAA Las Vegas 51s to start the year and was again named to play in the Futures Game with the World team. By then, fans in New York were clamoring for him to be called up to the Big Apple, as the Mets were badly in need of productive infielders, with an unhappy Asdrubal Cabrera and an aging Jose Reyes manning the two keystone positions. Journalists were speculating that the Mets were delaying the inevitable move in fear of further rocking a clubhouse that had seen a lot of dissension during a trying first half, with the risk that the veterans on the team would turn against the promising rookie, putting him in a difficult situation just as he was trying to get his feet wet. But he did make his debut that season, on August 1st and he played 46 games the rest of the way, hitting .248 with 4 homers and 10 RBIs.

He was the starting shortstop for the Mets for the next three seasons, playing 154 and 157 games respectively in 2018 and 2019. He improved each year, hitting .256 with 9 homers and 51 RBIs the first year and .287 with 15 homers and 72 RBIs the second, his OPS also climbing steadily, from 76 in his partial rookie season, to 88 and 101. He wasn't All-Star material yet, but was progressing fine and heading into his age 24 season seemed to be in the process of establishing himself as the long-term shortstop of the Mets.

On August 28, 2020, he did something that had never been seen in major league history. He hit a walk-off homer off Aroldis Chapman to give the Mets a 4-3 win over their crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees. What was unusual was that the homer came in the bottom of the 7th inning, the game being the second one of a doubleheader with MLB having decreed that doubleheaders would consist of two seven-inning games that season, due to COVID-19. It was also hit on the road, at New Yankee Stadium, because the second game was a make-up date for an earlier postponed game in which the Mets were supposed to be the home team. So no one before him had ever hit a walk-off homer, on the road, in the 7th inning - and it was likely that such a feat would not be repeated any time soon either. However, overall, the shortened season was a step-back for him, as his batting average fell to .252, his OPS+ to 76, and he hit just 3 doubles, 1 triple and 4 homers as the Mets were unable to take advantage of the expanded postseason field. Following the season, multi-billionaire Steven Cohen completed his purchase of the team and made it clear he was prepared to spend money to improve the on-field product. When the Cleveland Indians made it known that impending free agent SS Francisco Lindor would be available for the right price, the Mets made it known that they were interested, having the money to lock him down into a long-term deal. On January 7, 2021 a trade was made, with Lindor and P Carlos Carrasco heading to the Big Apple, with Rosario, fellow infielder Andres Gimenez, and youngsters P Josh Wolf and Isaiah Greene going to Cleveland.

The question in spring training in 2021 was who would be Cleveland's starter at shortstop: Rosario or Gimenez, both of whom had tried to claim the job with the Mets. After a couple of weeks, the Indians seemed to be leaning to Gimenez, as they asked Rosario to practice in the outfield in order to secure more playing time. He started off the year slowly, as he was batting just .179 at the end of April. He went back to starting at shortstop in May and hit a lot better - .307 with a .443 slugging percentage in 24 games to secure his starting job. He had his best month in August, when he batted .372 and capped it off with a career day against the Kansas City Royals on August 31st, when he went 5 for 5 with a pair of homers - one of which was an inside-the-parker - and 5 RBIs in a 7-2 win. He finished the year at .282 in 141 games, with 11 homers and 57 RBIs and an OPS+ of 100. He had a very similar season in 2022 for the now re-named Cleveland Guardians, batting .283 in 153 games with 11 homers and 71 RBIs. He scored 86 runs, led the American League with 9 triples (and also with 134 singles) and put up an OPS+ of 106. The Guardians won the AL Central division title and he went 2 for 9 as they defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card Series. In the tightly-fought Division Series against the New York Yankees, he was 5 for 20 with a home run and 2 RBIs.

He started the 2023 season slowly, but was finding his stroke, raising his average to .265 in 94 games by the end of July, although his OPS+ was still just 89. More problematic was that his fielding numbers were poor across the board, as he ranked among the worst starting shortstops in the majors by most metrics. The Guardians had a couple of good prospects angling for playing time, and on July 26th traded Rosario to the Los Angeles Dodgers in return for veteran P Noah Syndergaard, who was about to come off the injured list after a rough first few months. The Dodgers had been desperate for infield help ever since Gavin Lux had suffered a season-ending injury in spring training.

Notable Achievements

• 2-times League Singles Leader (2019/NL & 2022/AL)
• AL Triples Leader (2022)

Further Reading

• Bob Klapisch: "Are Mets protecting Rosario from their own clubhouse?", USA Today Sports, July 15, 2017. [1]
• Tom Withers (Associated Press): "Guardians trade shortstop Amed Rosario to Dodgers for pitcher Noah Syndergaard and nearly $1.9M", Yahoo! Sports, July 26, 2023. [2]

Related Sites

• BR Minors page