Mets need to revive bats if they want to be playing in October
Juan Soto of the Mets pops out during the sixth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Mets’ No. 1 talking point before Monday night’s game against the Guardians involved the fate of Frankie Montas, who deservedly is on thin ice and could easily drop out of the rotation if his next turn Saturday in Milwaukee stays on brand with a 6.68 ERA that actually feels much worse.
Montas, however, is survivable. Of greater concern, and one that -- like the wobbly rotation -- wasn’t addressed at the trade deadline, is the Mets’ inexplicable failures at the plate, which makes it much harder to cover for any of the team’s other shortcomings.
Case in point was Monday night, when Sean Manaea’s sixth-inning implosion, sudden and without warning, put the Mets in a 5-0 hole. This time, they did manage to climb out, mostly due to Pete Alonso’s four-hit, four-RBI performance. But staying on brand, the rest of the Mets scraped up just enough offense to ultimately lose, 7-6, to the Guardians in 10 innings.
The good news? The Mets had only been averaging 4.02 runs since June 13, the third-fewest in the majors, so they cleared that low bar thanks to Alonso’s three-run homer (No. 251, one short of Darry Strawberry’s franchise record) and a furious two-run rally in the eighth that included four straight hits (three by the “Fab Four”) along with Mark Vientos’ tying sacrifice fly.
Alas, Guardians second baseman Brayan Rocchio made a brilliant diving stop to rob Cedric Mullins of what looked to be the go-ahead RBI single and the Mets failed to score in the ninth after loading the bases with one out. Alonso whiffed and Jeff McNeil hit a line drive directly to the shortstop, who was shading the middle.
“It’s frustrating not to come up with a W,” Alonso said. “But there were a lot of good signs, from all aspects.”
Still, the Mets went 4-for-15 with runners in scoring position, stranding 10, and they’re hitting .232 in those situations overall, the fourth-worst mark in the majors. Heading into Monday, since June 13, their .681 OPS was the third-worst and .229 batting average ranked 29th, with only Cleveland (.229) below them during that span.
The Mets have now lost three of their last four games to the Giants and Guardians, the only two teams that have scored fewer runs over the past two months. That’s an ominous sign, especially when the Mets are now eight games under .500 (18-26) since June 13. Clearly, something has to change, and since president of baseball ops David Stearns focused mostly on the bullpen at the deadline, his strategy is to rely on the talent in place to reverse these trends.
Rotation-wise, that could end up being a problem. Too many question marks have developed recently and length continues to be a nagging issue. But from a lineup perspective, on paper, the Mets should be a run-scoring machine, and we can’t blame Stearns & Co. for believing it’s going to kick in at some point.
There’s been a number of false starts, too. It was only a month ago that owner Steve Cohen took to X to praise his “Fab Four” -- Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto -- for teaming up to power a remarkable comeback victory in Baltimore. Other than that special July 8 night at Camden Yards, however, when they combined to 8-for-19 with two homers and six RBIs, the band has mostly been out of tune.
On Monday night, the “Fab Four” went 8-for-13, but Alonso provided half those hits and all of the band’s RBIs. Soto looked ready to go supernova in the second half after winning Player of the Month honors for June (.322 BA, 11 HRs, 1.196 OPS), but since July 1, he was stunningly human before Monday, hitting .213 with five homers and a .394 slugging percentage over 26 games.
The streaky Lindor had been marginally better (.230 BA, .709 OPS) and Nimmo was at the head of the “Fab Four” class, hitting .276 with an .801 OPS before his 0-for-5 Monday (four Ks). Either they perform up to expectations or the Mets’ dream of a deep October run fizzles faster than anyone anticipated.
“I wouldn’t say surprised,” manager Carlos Mendoza said before Monday’s game. “It’s baseball, man. It’s hard. And even the best players, the superstars, they struggle and we’ve seen it with our guys. I think what’s surprising is that pretty much all of them, at the same time, went through this. But you see signs of Pete, Lindor, Nimmo being very consistent as of late. So there’s definitely better signs. And they’re really good hitters, so at any point it could happen.”
We get what Mendoza is saying. Slumps happen. But “it’s baseball” would make a lousy epitaph for this season, and an extremely disappointing return on Cohen’s $333 million investment -- the bulk of MLB’s second-highest payroll going to the “Fab Four.”
The other strange thing about the Mets’ misfiring offense? They actually pulled off what we thought would be the most difficult part: transforming the bottom half of the lineup into a versatile, somewhat productive group of hitters. The Mets apparently fixed Francisco Alvarez by sending him down for a month-long refresher Triple-A Syracuse, and Baty had an RBI single Monday night (despite making a costly 10th-inning error).
Just too little, too late. And with 49 games left, the Mets need a lot more from their lineup on a consistent basis.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
