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Citi Field. Photo by Jason Schott. |
The Mets announced on Friday that they have re-signed outfielder and fan favorite Jesse Winker to a one-year contract.
This is a no-brainer, as Winker did everything the Mets expected of him when he arrived at the trade deadline last season, to the point he had a role in the starting lineup in the playoffs.
In 44 games with the Mets after he was acquired from the Washington Nationals, he hit .243, with a .318 on-base percentage, three home runs, and 13 RBI.
For the 2024 regular season as a whole, Winker played in a career-high 145 games, with a .253 average, .360 on-base percentage, and a .405 slugging percentage, with 14 home runs, 58 RBI, with 63 walks, and 23 doubles.
Winker was 11th in the National League in OBP with that .360 mark, and he was sixth with a .327 batting average with runners in scoring position, as he had 34 hits in 104 at-bats in those situations.
In the postseason, Winker took it up a notch in the Mets' run to the National League Championship Series. He hit .318, with a .531 on-base percentage, with one home run, four RBI, and two triples in 10 playoff games.
Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns said in a statement, "We're excited to being Jesse back to the organization. Jesse had an immediate impact on the club last year, contributing during crucial moments both in the regular season and Postseason. We're looking forward to adding his left-handed bat back in our lineup."
In 341 at-bats against right-handed pitching last season, Winker had a slash line of .258/.366/.422, with 13 home runs and 49 RBI.
When the Mets acquired Winker last summer, we wrote of how he was known to the Flushing faithful, "Winker is that rare player who made himself into a target of the fans without an obvious reason, like playing on a rival or in a big playoff game. There was a Monday night in May 2019, while Winker was playing with Cincinnati, that he ran over to the left field fence to make a catch and he and the fans were jawing with each other after the play. That banter continued between him and the fans for the rest of the series, and ever since then, even as he has visited with Seattle and Milwaukee, he has gotten a loud reception."
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