Hayden Senger was invited to Mets spring training for the second spring in a row. The 25-year old was drafted by the Mets in the 24th round back in 2018 from Miami University of Ohio and was a .272/.359/.409 hitter in college. Throughout his time in the minors he has been a .249/.334/.378 and has played every where in the Mets system from now non-existent Kingsport Mets and Columbia Fireflies all the way to the Syracuse Mets.
After missing a season of minor league baseball due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Senger came back to baseball roaring in 2021 slashing .263/.341/.429 between Brooklyn and Binghamton. He then followed that up with a stint in the Arizona Fall League where he had a .375 on base percentage over 40 plate appearances. In between the 2021 and 2022 seasons he started to pop-up on Mets prospects lists (generally around 20th in the system).
Last season wasn’t as good for Senger (.240/.309/.358) but Senger was never projecting to be the star Mets catcher. Senger has solid defense and fairly solid hitting. Right now he seems Nido-esque in a farm system that boasts two of the top hitting catching prospects in baseball.
This spring Senger needs to look better behind the bag than Nick Meyer and needs to hit better than Michael Pérez in order to continue to move up the Mets emergency catching depth chart. The Mets are built differently at catcher this season with Nido and Narváez ready to start the season in Queens and Álvarez on deck. Last season though the Mets had McCann, Nido and Mazeika and still needed to bring in Pérez for a short stint – so you never know!
