Luis Guillorme is the master of getting on base and making the most of his playing time

If the name of the game is getting on base, and the best hitters are the ones who get on base most frequently, then Luis Guillorme is currently the best hitter in the National League.

The Mets’ infielder, who’s been used sparingly for his entire five-year career, has the highest on-base percentage of any NL player that’s made at least 100 plate appearances. He’s ahead of potential Hall of Famers Paul Goldschmidt and Manny Machado, and he’s not just edging them out either. Guillorme heads into the Mets’ grueling West Coast road trip with a .455 on-base percentage. Goldschmidt is at .429 with Machado at .422.

Both Goldschmidt and Machado have made double the plate appearances that Guillorme has, but that’s not Guillorme’s fault. All a hitter can do is maximize the at-bats they’re given, which is what Guillorme did for the entire month of May. He racked up a preposterous .414/.477/.517 slash line in 66 May plate appearances. The batting average and on-base percentage led Major League Baseball during that month, and it was the tenth-highest batting average any Met has ever had in a single month. That scorched earth stretch forced himself into the lineup, as the bearded Venezuelan has started 12 of the Mets’ last 20 games and each of the last five.

Buck Showalter has really had no choice but to play Guillorme. A career .262 hitter coming into the year, Guillorme has started the year hitting .360. The 27-year-old has always been an obsessively patient hitter, and now that the hits are starting to drop too, seemingly no pitcher in the league can keep him off the base paths. For the third straight season, Guillorme is taking a walk in over 14% of his plate appearances.

Guillorme’s overall swing percentage is significantly lower than average. While the rest of the players in the league swing at 47.4% of the pitches they see, Guillorme is offering at just 39.4%. He’s also seen 31 pitches this season that Baseball-Savant defines as “waste pitches,” ones well outside the strike zone that are typically meant to either set up a subsequent pitch or get a hitter to swing at something they have no chance of contacting. Of those 31 pitches, Guillorme has swung at zero. Baseball-Savant estimates that Guillorme’s world-class plate discipline has been worth three runs for the Mets.

The Mets’ utility infielder — whose lightning-quick hands also make him the resident ping pong guru in the clubhouse — is not the type of hitter who will get himself out. But when he trades his bat for a glove, he’s a master at turning batted balls into outs. Teammates have referred to Guillorme as a “wizard” in the field, and after some especially flashy leather displays in Monday’s game, Showalter lauded Guillorme for “putting on a clinic” at second base. Bouncing between second, third base and shortstop, Guillorme is one of 42 infielders this season that’s been worth one or more Outs Above Average (minimum 100 attempts).

The guy just doesn’t make a lot of mistakes in any facet of the game. In the simplest possible terms, good offense plus sound defense means a player will grade out pretty nicely by Wins Above Replacement. As of Thursday morning, Guillorme has been worth 1.2 WAR per FanGraphs. Of the 27 other NL position players that have reached that threshold, Guillorme has the fewest plate appearances. He is, quite literally, making the most of his limited playing time. Showalter is keen on saying that he doesn’t view any of his players as part timers, both because he gives them ample opportunities to get into the game, but also because of the mental stigma that comes with being labeled a reserve. Whether it’s coincidence or not, Guillorme has really taken off in his first year playing for Showalter.

If there’s any nits to pick, it’s that 25 of Guillorme’s 31 hits have been singles. But the Mets, a team happily enjoying Pete Alonso’s Popeye arms and Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte’s power resurgences, don’t need Guillorme to dismantle the ball. Getting on base in front of the big boppers is completely fine and dandy.

So far, nobody in the National League is doing a better job of that than Guillorme, a man who went from a bench ornament under Mickey Callaway to fan favorite in the Luis Rojas era to legitimate piece of Showalter’s first Mets team.

Guillorme surely won’t be Tony Gwynn for the entire season, but that doesn’t belittle what he’s done in this increasingly-growing sample size. If anything, the unbelievable Guillorme story is a microcosm of the Mets’ season. They’re kicking everyone’s teeth in, but doing so with All-Stars like Alonso and Lindor as well as cult heroes like Guillorme, Nick Plummer and Drew Smith.

Last season, a 15-15 record in June precipitated the Mets’ brutal backslide. Check in at the end of the month before re-evaluating, but people like Guillorme are going to try their damndest to leave the sour taste of 2021 firmly in the past.

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from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/yi5xmZe