John From Albany - The Mets NL DH

We may soon be getting baseball back.  Then again, we may not.  However, once thing seems very likely, the DH in NL for 2020-21, could become permanent.

What does that mean for the Mets?

We could see Yoenis Cespedes receive the majority of the DH at-bats.  Tom here at Mack’s Mets has talked about that in the past and hoped that he’d battle Pete Alonso for the HR title.

But I’d like the Mets to try and focus on something else – use the DH to try and improve the defense.

Per the NY Daily News Defense is still a glaring weakness.  “For the third straight year, the Mets finished bottom five in the league in Defensive Runs Saved (-93; 29th) and bottom 10 in Ultimate Zone Rating (-12.8; 24th) in 2019, per Fangraphs. The Amazin’s -93 DRS were second only to the Orioles’ -105.“

Now let’s look at some of the DH options through the DRS lens.

Dominic Smith (+1 DRS) vs. Pete Alonso (-3 DRS).  Playing Dom at 1B and DHing Pete would better the defense by 4. 

Everybody says how hard Pete has worked on his defense at 1B.  In fact none of his 12 errors came after August 17^th. But the DRS improvement is hard to ignore.

J.D. Davis in LF (-9 DRS)/Jeff McNeil at 3B (4 DRS)/Robinson Cano at 2B (-6 DRS) vs. J.D. Davis at 3B (-11 DRS)/Jeff McNeil at 2B (-1 DRS) Robinson Cano DH.  

That’s -11 DRS with Cano at 2B vs. -12 with Cano as the DH.  That surprised me.  It shows bad defense was not all Cano’s fault and neither option improves the defense much.

What about Wilson Ramos as the DH (-11 DRS) vs. Tomas Nido (0 DRS)?  That’s an 11 point difference.  When you add Wilson’s Catcher ERA of 4.34 vs. Nido’s 3.79, and the fact that pitchers like to throw to Nido, it further helps the case to catch Nido and DH Ramos.

My prediction? The Mets won’t pick a regular DH.  They will mix and match different players in the position like Cespedes, Cano, Ramos, Smith, and Alonso to try to keep regulars in the lineup while giving them a break in the field.

However, with the Mets poor defense for the last 3 years, and the fact that they will be down Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler from last year, having Pete Alonso at DH and Dom Smith at 1B would be the biggest way they could help the defense when the DH comes to the NL.