Danny Mendick appeared in Saturday’s starting lineup as the Mets third basemen. It was certainly not what the fans expected and not much is known about this under the radar choice to be called up in the face of the Eduardo Escobar trade. We all thought that Ronny Mauricio might get the call, but the reality is that he has not appeared at 3B this season. And unlike what you will read about Mendick, Mauricio needs to improve over his lifetime minor league fielding percentage of .938, that was only marginally better this year playing 2B, SS and LF for Syracuse. Of course that does not take into account Mauricio’s batting of .308/.356/.517, OPS of .873 to go along with 11 HR, 43 RBI and 11 SB. But back to Mendick.
Mendick, age 29, is an infielder born in Rochester, NY who bats and throws right-handed. He joined the Mets organization as a free agent in December 2022 after playing parts of four years with the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox had chosen him in the 22nd round in the 2015 Draft and he made it to the big leagues in 2019. Over his four years with the south side Chicago team, he batted .249/.306/.363 with an OPS of .670. He is mostly a singles hitter with no power as evidenced by his 13 doubles to go along with two triples and 10 home runs in 407 at-bats.
His value appears to be both in his flexibility of being able to play 2B, SS and 3B and having a .995 fielding percentage with just two errors in 408 chances. For Triple-A Syracuse this season, Mendick hit his stride batting .261/.345/.401 with an OPS of .757. He also crashed 8 HR to go along with 35 RBI, hit 12 2B and even 8 SB. He made only three errors (two at 3B and one at SS) and showed additional flexibility spending some time playing all three outfield positions.
He will earn $1 million in 2023, is arbitration-eligible in 2024 and 2025 and could attain free agent status in 2026.