New York Mets: Could the Season Be Derailed By Slump?
The New York Mets appeared as though they would run away with the NL East. Now, their offensive woes may prove otherwise.
At 34-29, the New York Mets are 4.5 games behind the Washington Nationals and in an offensive slump that is frustrating even the most die hard of Met fans.
Going into this season, the Mets believed they were poised for a deep run into the playoffs that would ultimately end up in a second straight appearance in the World Series. Unsurprisingly however, their plans are not going as expected. With three of their opening day starters on the DL, and many of their power hitters underperforming, the Mets have had trouble pulling together enough offence to win games and capitalize on scoring opportunities.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
The only solace they can take is that their starting pitchers are pitching superbly. This much was expected. Their rotation consists of five men who have the ability to be the premier pitcher in almost any other rotation in the MLB. However, the Mets are realizing that you can’t rely on a stellar pitching staff to win games by themselves for you. You also need the offence to contribute.
This season Mets hitters are batting just .238 with an OBP of .316. These numbers are hardly reminiscent of the team that went on an offensive tear late in the 2015 season.
One could be quick to assume that the Mets are out of it and cannot possibly stay alive until September and make a serious run at the World Series, let alone the NL East title. But they would be misguided in this prognosis. When assessing the Mets woes, you must take into account the aforementioned injuries as well as normal slumps that players face.
Travis d’Arnaud, David Wright and Lucas Duda are all currently on the DL and with them is an incredibly important aspect of the Mets offence that they relied on at the end of last season and the beginning of this season is missing. Michael Conforto is also hitting his sophomore slump while, Neil Walker has recently been battling injury. The only promising hitters are Wilmer Flores who has recently caught fire in the box, as has new addition, James Loney. Also, Yoenis Cespedes has remained the constant offensive presence that Met fans expect him to be.
With all of this negativity abound, especially on the infamous #MetsTwitter, there is a silver lining in the clouds of Flushing. When allowing three or fewer runs, the team is 28-9, hardly anything to scoff at. And hardly evidence of a team that can’t win close games for their pitchers.
With this stat though, the Mets are still offensively bad with runners in scoring position and situational hitting. They need to improve in many key categories if they hope to mount a comeback. Currently, the team is dead last in stolen based in the NL with just 13 on the season and first in caught stealing with nine. In addition to this awful fact, they also fall within the bottom three in runs, hits, and sacrifice flies. And finally, they rank third with 563 strikeouts on the season, trailing behind the Brewers and Padres.
Next: Five most disappointing teams this season
The season is not lost for the Mets. They still have plenty of time to get their acts together and make an attempt at the NL East crown for a second straight season.