Everyone wants to point to the Mets’ aging and ailing starting rotation — are they more aging than ailing, or vice versa? — as the prime reason they are so far below their 101-win pace of a year ago. But let’s be fair to the pitching geezers and gimps: the Mets’ offense remains a real issue, too, especially lately.
The same lineup that produced at a top-five rate in 2022 looks perfectly average this year, and even worse than that recently. Heading into Saturday’s matchup with the also-ran Rockies, which they lost 5-2 to drop to .500, the Mets were tied for 16thin runs per-game and 16th in OPS. That’s quite a drop from a year ago when they finished fourth in runs and seventh in OPS.
The only everyday player who’s clearly producing above what’s expected was dubbed “Nimm Nuts” on the back page of this very paper the other day, following Brandon Nimmo’s inexplicable idea to try to steal second with the tying run at the plate and the heart* of the lineup up in the ninth inning. (*To be fair, the heart of the lineup is struggling just like the rest lately.)
Manager Buck Showalter was publicly supportive of Nimmo, as he appreciates his good intentions and better nature, his stark career improvement and probably also his productivity, especially compared to everyone who follows him in the lineup. But while Nimmo has acclimated to the major league game via hard work and off-the-charts desire, every once in a while the Cheyenne, Wyoming in him surfaces. He didn’t play high school baseball, and according to Wikipedia grew up wanting to ride bulls, not steal bases. (Side note: Showalter revealed he and Nimmo happened to leave the Comerica Park clubhouse simultaneously, presumably giving Showalter the chance to tell him never to try that again. But surely much more diplomatically than that.)
Anyway, on every other day Nimmo is the least of Showalter’s worries. He didn’t order them for me, but as I see it, here are three big issues with the Mets’ middle-of-the-pack offense, in order.
1. Francisco Lindor and especially Starling Marte haven’t been themselves yet.
While there’s no explanation for Nimmo’s Little League-level play, maybe he was just trying to create something ahead of the Mets’ two struggling stars. Lindor is currently batting .222, which only looks acceptable compared to Marte’s .213. And that’s not going to work ahead of last year’s National League RBI champion Pete Alonso.
Marte is the bigger issue of the two as he isn’t driving the ball, either. Showalter admitted he’s considered dropping him in the order — “It’s something I’ve looked at and I’ve thought about it,” the manager said — but so far he’s resisted for two reasons.
The first has to do with the dynamics of the lineup. The obvious replacement in the No. 2 spot would be Jeff McNeil, who won the batting championship last year and is a rare Met who’s relatively warm now, but Showalter prefers not to start the lineup with two left-handed hitters. The second reason is he suspects it might affect Marte psychologically to be demoted. (There’s obviously a lot more that goes into these decisions than analytics could tell you.)
2. The Mets are getting almost nothing offensively out of the catching position.
Tomas Nido is a defensive specialist, and never more so than so far this year, when he has a negative-24 OPS-plus (or is that just a 24 OPS-minus?) Heralded rookie Francisco Alvarez looks much improved defensively but he’s still adjusting to big-league pitching. Meantime, starter Omar Narvaez (remember him?) told The Post he’s progressing nicely but still expects it to be a month before he’s back playing.
3. The Mets are still searching for a true No. 5 hitter to bat behind Alonso.
They’ve used McNeil, Daniel Vogelbach, Tommy Pham and Mark Canha in that spot, and while they are fine players and have their moments, none of them is the type of bona fide slugger that would cause opposing pitchers to think twice about pitching around Alonso.
Alonso has still managed to hit 11 home runs — twice as many as anyone else on the team — and he isn’t the blaming anyone but himself for a recent 3-for-20 slide that’s dropped him to .240. He said he’s still getting pitches to hit, but that “I definitely need to be better at capitalizing on mistakes.” That’s characteristically very diplomatic of Alonso. No, it’s “fact,” he insisted, again diplomatically.
Anyway, the better news is that the answer might be on their roster right now. Mets people see hard-hitting rookie Brett Baty as a possible No. 5 hitter, a guy who could ultimately provide honest-to-goodness protection for one of the game’s best sluggers. Showalter understandably started the kid at No. 8 but quietly has moved him up to No. 6 (even against lefty Austin Gomber on Saturday). Baty could be destined for yet another lineup promotion, which just might be the cure there.
What makes the average productivity so surprising is that it’s virtually the same names as 2022. If this keeps up, there might need to be some serious rearranging.