The most eye-catching moment in Sunday’s Mets win had nothing to do with a swing. The San Francisco Giants chose to intentionally walk Juan Soto and pitch to Bo Bichette instead, and it was the 10th time this season Soto was handed a free pass. He drew 13 intentional walks in 2025, too, while even Jeff McNeil finished with a crooked number of his own at 4.
But in 2026, that kind of treatment has mostly vanished for the rest of the organization.
Outside of Soto, only Francisco Alvarez and Carson Benge were intentionally walked at the big league level all season, and each of them had just one. Down in the minors, the pattern has been even more striking: only Elian Pena has more than one intentional walk in 2026.
That raises the obvious question - is this a Mets-only quirk, or are pitchers across the board simply not seeing enough danger in the lineup?
At the minor league level, a low intentional-walk total is not unusual on its own. Pitchers are supposed to work through those situations, and free passes are harder to come by when the hitter pool is thinner.
The Mets have had a few recent cases of players being intentionally walked more than once: Ryan Clifford had 3 in 2024, Benge picked up 2 in 2025 across High-A and Double-A, and A.J. Ewing was intentionally walked twice in 2025 as well, once at each of two different levels.
Still, the 2026 numbers stand out because the season is either already finished or close to it for most teams. Unless there’s a late surprise, the Mets won’t have many players joining the small group of hitters who were intentionally walked more than once this year.
Intentional walks are also tough to forecast. Soto is usually a strong bet to rank near the top of the league when he’s healthy. This season, though, Bichette looked more attackable, Francisco Lindor had Soto behind him in the order, and there simply wasn’t another obvious bat that forced opponents to change course.
And even though the Mets haven’t been playing meaningful games for themselves in months, opposing clubs still have no issue choosing the intentional route when the matchup calls for it. The Giants, one of the few MLB teams with a worse record than the Mets, were the latest reminder that these decisions can be completely situational.
The lack of intentional walks at the major league level is also notable because Pete Alonso has long been a magnet for them. In every year of his career, he has drawn at least 4, and in 2022 he led the league with 16.
What really jumps off the page, though, is the minor league total: only one Mets player with more than one intentional walk. That speaks to more than just a conservative approach from opponents. It also reflects how many players have stalled out, slipped, or simply not developed into the kind of threats that force pitchers to back off.
Across the entire minor league system, the Mets have totaled 23 intentional walks. Add that to the drop from 28 to 12 at the major league level, and the message from opposing pitchers is clear: Mets hitters at every level are being made to earn it.
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