Howdy y’all, and welcome to another stolen base SAGNOF Wednesday drop in from yours truly TheGreatKnoche. I hope everyone is still active and alive in their fantasy leagues as we have reached the 1/4 pole in the season. For me, I am doing very well in Draft Champions Leagues and RCLs, with the exception of the Perts League, and very poorly in my other weekly FAAB leagues.
Today, we are going to take a quick deep dive into A.J. Ewing, the young Mets speedster who has taken over for LouBob in Center Field. Is he going to be the real deal for SAGNOF? Or like the Tiktok trend I stole the article title from more like my wife getting on top for 37 seconds? Let’s find out.
So what do we know about this kid?
Well, he’s 21 years old and was a 4th round pick back in 2023. He struggled in rookie ball and Low-A hitting for average in 2024, but something clicked last year seeing the ball, and A.J. started to hit. Starting with the K-Rate, in 2024, he struck out in 28.5% of his at-bats, but in 2025, he lowered it to 18.8%. The walk rate also came down, but is still really good at 12.1%. This tells me he is putting more balls in play in pitcher’s counts while still seeing it really well.
His batting average in 2024 was only .233 with a BABIP sitting at .318. Fast forward again to 2025, and a .315 BA emerges with a .392 BABIP. He will probably settle somewhere lower than this super high water mark, but he does have the speed to support a very high BABIP at the MLB level.
How Fast is he? Well, he still isn’t qualified over at Statcast, but the number so far shows at 29.2 FT/sec, and I am guessing he ends up slightly higher. That would put him in the top 20 in MLB for sprint speed. As far as stolen bases are concerned, he only stole 13 in 382 plate appearances in 2024 (caught 6 times), but really let loose last year, stealing 70 in 2025 (caught only 11 times). Personally, I think the Mets needed to fire their Low-A coaching staff from 2024. Oh, wait, they did before the 2025 season. Of those 70 stolen bases in 2025, 14 were in Low-A ball in only 81 plate appearances. Coaching matters.
So far, he’s playing pretty much every day and has two steals in 31 plate appearances to go along with a Home Run, and a .304 BA in MLB. The fact that they called him up when they did tells me this LouBob injury isn’t going away, and Ewing is likely to be the guy in Center Field for the Mets for the rest of the year, or at least most of it. If he’s still on waivers in your league and you need steals, he certainly could add 20-40 for your team for the rest of the year.
Here’s this week’s Stolen Bases Leaderboard
Jose Ramirez said I ain’t old stealing four bases this week. His sprint speed is actually now below MLB average at 27.3 Ft/sec, and he’s still tied for the MLB lead in steals with 20 and has only been caught twice. The ability to read pitchers and get jumps plays a big part in stealing bases as well!
The Speed Dials
0 for 6 so far this year, hoping to get on the board soon.
Wednesday, May 20th – Brewers vs Cubs
David Hamilton – It’s a super SAGNOF match-up here with Edward Cabrera on the hill for the Cubs. He has the absolute highest SB-rate against for pitchers in MLB, allowing .235 SB/IP and an 85.9%success rate. He’ll face off against the Brewers and SAGNOF specialist David Hamilton and his 29.3 Ft/sec sprint speed. Hamilton has eight stolen bases so far this season in eleven attempts. Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly are both middle of the pack at throwing runners out, but Cabrera usually doesn’t give them much of a chance.
Thursday, May 21st – Braves vs Marlins
Ha-Seong Kim – Well, it’s possible he’s washed up batting .053 since his return from his rehab assignment, but it’s only been 21 plate appearances, people. He hit .233 with 11 Home Runs and 22 steals in his last extended gametime in 2024. There is certainly bound to be some rust. We’ll see if he can get us a stolen base against Sandy Alcantara on Thursday. Alcantara couldn’t hold water in the ocean, as 97.2% of base runners are successful against him. The only reason his SB/IP is at .200 and lower than Cabrera’s is because he’s allowed less traffic. We’ve also mentioned in previous articles how the Marlins catchers are some of the worst in MLB at throwing out runners. Out of 67 qualified catchers since the start of 2025, Liam Hicks ranks 61st, and Agustin Ramirez is dead last.
As always, if you’re looking for anything further out for next week, where we don’t have exact pitching match-ups, hit me up here or on Twitter @TheGreatKnoche
