Gimenez finding his groove in AFL 

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Mets infield prospect Andres Gimenez smiled and shrugged.

He’s not exactly sure what the next move in his baseball future will be, but he knows it’s going to be good.

“The only thing that I know is that I’m going to keep working hard and keep pushing,” Gimenez, 21, said.

The approach has served him well.

Gimenez, who ranked No. 22 on MLB.com’s Top 30 International Prospects list when he signed for $1.2 million in 2015 out of Venezuela, is now the Mets' No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline. So far, he sports a .333 batting average with 13 RBIs and one home run for the Scottsdale Scorpions in Arizona Fall League play.

“He’s the best utility player you can have,” Scottsdale manager Cesar Martin said. “He can play defense and he can put the ball in play. He can run. He can do a lot of good things in the game.”

On Wednesday, Gimenez went 1-for-4 with a double and two RBIs in the Scorpions' 4-2 loss against the Salt River Rafters at Salt River Fields. You can argue his two strikeouts in the game were just as important as the extra-base hit. Every one of his at-bats in Arizona matter to the Mets.

“Andres is such a smart player that the more information he continues to gather in game at-bats and put in his memory and rolodex, the better he’s going to be in terms of swing decisions and plate discipline,” said Jared Banner, the Mets’ executive director of player development. “He’s learning when and where he can do damage and gaining experience against top quality competition.”

Gimenez began his professional career in the Dominican Summer League and started with Class-A Columbia when he arrived in the U.S. in 2017. The next year, he played 37 games with Double-A Binghamton by age 20.

In 2019, Gimenez slashed .250/.309/.387 in 117 games for Binghamton. He also hit nine homers and drove in 37 runs. On defense, he made 11 errors in 413 chances.

“Baseball is up and down,” Gimenez said. “I’m just going to keep working hard. It was a good [year] for me.”

The Mets have not determined if the young infielder will return to Double-A or start the season at Triple-A Syracuse in 2020.

“It was a great development year for him,” Banner said. “He was very steady defensively and we challenged him to continue to keep working on something that was already a strength and he got even better. His offense was up and down, but we like the way he finished the season, hitting the ball hard to all fields.”

It’s Gimenez’s growth on offense that will likely determine how fast he rises through the Mets' Minor League system and whether or not he ultimately fulfills his dream to play in the big leagues. He’s not a finished product on defense, either, which is another reason he is playing in Arizona.

“It’s the same with all of our players, in that we want them to try to get better in some way, shape or form,” Banner said. “Andres is already a hard worker and we know he will take care of his body and do what he can to get strong and take advantage of opportunities like he is now in the Fall League.”