Harrison Bader wasn’t just brought in by the New York Mets to provide outfield depth.
President of baseball operations David Stearns on Wednesday admitted that the veteran outfielder will be playing “a lot of center field,” for the Mets in 2024, which could potentially shift Brandon Nimmo into playing the bulk of his time in left field.
“Harrison is going to play a lot of center field,” Stearns said during the Mets’ introductory Zoom conference of Bader and starting pitcher Luis Severino. “He’s going to play regularly in center field. We’re fortunate we have a number of outfielders who can play multiple positions.
“Is Brandon going to be exclusively a left fielder? We’ll tackle that as we get into spring training and see the true formulation of what our team looks like.”
Bader is an elite defensive center fielder and one of the best with the glove in his game. His outs above average (OAA) across the last three seasons ranked in the 99th, 91st, and 95th percentiles, per Baseball Savant.
Amongst his largest uncertainties is his offense, which could potentially impact the extent of his playing time.
Last season with the Yankees and Cincinnati Reds, he batted .232 with a .622 OPS, seven home runs, and 40 RBI across 98 games. He possesses a career .243 average and a .706 OPS, though his production has been hampered by ceaseless injury issues. Over the previous three seasons alone, he’s missed 199 games.
“I take extreme ownership of being physically prepared,” Bader said. “It’s been a rough two seasons… Being physically there is really, really important. My goals are to be sharp every single day… tap into my potential every day and see what it looks like after six months… It’s going to take work but I’m looking forward to that work.”
The 29-year-old Bronxville, NY native, who grew up a Yankees fan but remembers family battles with Mets supporters, cited the opportunity the Queens side of New York baseball provides him, which was a significant reason why he agreed to a one-year, $10.5 million deal last week.
Slotting him in center field on most nights gives the Mets the flexibility to take some strain off Nimmo while being able to experiment with DJ Stewart and Tyrone Taylor — initially two left-field options heading into 2024 — at the designated hitter spot, too.
“There’s tremendous opportunity with the Mets,” Bader said. “They expressed what they wanted to achieve in free agency and they got the player in me and they hit just that. I can impact on all sides of the ball. There’s no doubt that health is my main focus.
“We take extreme ownership of that in making sure that I’m the best physically I can be so I can go out there and be impactful.”
