Reese Kaplan -- Prove That DH Isn't Short For "Doesn't Hit"

Every team seems to have its own Achille's heal and for many years on the Mets that appeared to be third base.  After all, until Howard Johnson and David Wright happened along it was a regular rotation of has beens and never weres attempting to man the hot corner.  

Lately the third base woes, while not fully solved, have at least sported some decent contenders who off and on provided enough overall quality of play that the position is no longer the source of mystery and embarrassment.  

No, the torch for humiliation has now been passed to the no longer newly minted National League embrace of the Designated Hitter (DH).  On paper it would seem the definition is in the name of the role itself.  Designated HITTER.  It would seem that finding someone capable of delivering with the bat with no worries about defense nor baserunning should be self evident.  

Unfortunately, in the Mets' short history of deploying a DH they have designated people to attempt to provide more productivity than a pitcher at bat, yet none of Darin Ruf, Daniel Vogelbach, J.D. Davis, Tyler Naquin and countless others who suited up to take on that duty have not delivered as had been hoped.  

With David Stearns now in charge the Mets are once again starting from scratch in that regard, but the people being discussed are not necessarily ones who would fill the box scores with RBIs nor fans with a warm and fuzzy glow.

Most recently the topic arose and spare players not being granted a glove to help the team would first and foremost be the lefty/righty duo of D.J. Stewart and Mark Vientos.  Here are two different approaches to the problem, neither one of which has any certainty.

D.J. Stewart was a signing last year who seemed to be a warm body to help in Syracuse and be available if the need arose in New York.  He's a career .220 hitter with suspect defensive skills and a body threatening to turn into an homage to Daniel Vogelbach.  Surprisingly, when he was indeed summoned to help in New York due to injuries and incompetence in the outfield, he responded for quite awhile hitting with some consistency and actually got to the point where people didn't shudder when they saw him in the on deck circle.  

For awhile you thought Billy Eppler plucked a diamond in the rough from tumbling pile of throwaway stones.  He was hitting with power and occasionally even made a decent catch in the outfield.  

That defensive prowess was short lived as was the base running ability.  What was left for the Mets to enjoy was the swinging of the bat...until September rolled around and then his productivity went into a major tailspin.  Don't get me wrong.  By Stewart standards the 2023 output of a .244 average with 11 HRs and 26 RBIs over 160 ABs was by far his best major league contribution.  

Triple those numbers and you'd have a 33 HR hitter with 78 RBIs.  While those metrics won't get someone a ticket to Cooperstown, they're certainly better than what had been achieved by the panoply of players the Mets had otherwise designated to deliver in the NL role of DH.

In Mark Vientos' case, his lack of productivity had as much to do with Buck Showalter's hands being tied by Billy Eppler who insisted that Vogelbach remain the primary DH.  Vientos started to take root on the bench, never entering games.  When he finally did, everyone wondered what the big deal was about him given his inability to hit the ground running like a latter day version of Edgar Martinez.  

In his brief trial in the major leagues Vientos has mirrored what he did in the minors -- struggling a bit to adjust to the new level of pitching, then starting to respond with a quality bat.  The overall numbers are cringe-worthy.  He hit just .211 with 9 HRs and 22 RBIs over a very scattered 200+ ABs.  Look a little deeper, however, and you will see that for September he was picking up where Stewart left off.  

From August to September his average jumped from .169 to .230 while he hit 6 HRs and drove in 11 over 87 ABs.  Extrapolate that increase in productivity over a six month season and you find a 36 HR hitter with 77 RBIs.  With more regular playing time it's reasonable to expect the batting average to rise as well.

At the risk of making you have Eppler et al flashbacks, it's easy to foresee the Mets going into 2024 with a lefty/righty platoon in the hopes that either or both deliver on the stronger parts of what was seen in 2023.  Still, the batting averages historically seem weak and you're rolling a very large pair of dice in the hopes you hit 7 or 11 instead of any other result.  

So what about alternatives in the free agent marketplace?  Well, several do exist but will likely cost quite a bit to get a more guaranteed level of output.  It's not necessary to revisit the impressive numbers posted by the likes of J.D. Martinez or Justin Turner, but the salary will jump north of $10 million for a single year's commitment (and they may want at least two seasons at the level of compensation).  

Other players previously mentioned like Jorge Soler and Teoscar Hernandez could provide more major league proof of annual output, but again the compensation will be high and they are young enough to command 3-5 years in a contract.  That's not ideal for guys who strike out in some cases over 200 times per season when the ball is not flying over the fence.  

Of course, no one says that DHs must be former outfielders or third basemen.  We already discussed the prospect of bringing in someone like Rhys Hoskins to play 1B and shifting the powerful bat of Pete Alonso into this role.  You could do the same exercise with other positions as well by relegating the player in previous Mets lineups from taking the field to a more narrow definition of only wielding a bat.  

Some have even suggested that the recovering Starling Marte might benefit from a role like DH which won't force him into the long outfield runs which could prove taxing to him while he returns to 100% health.  

For now, the Mets fans and media are simply frustrated by the seeming inertia of the front office when it comes to impact players.  No one is trying to cast aspersions on some of the bench, bullpen and starting rotation wannabes they have made a part of the roster, but scoring runs right now appears to be the same old problem from the 2023 campaign which has not yet been addressed.  

Of course, David Stearns is like every other head baseball honcho in terms of making deals while awaiting the big fish from Japan (and Anaheim by way of Japan) to be hooked before they drop their lines in the water.  Once Shoehei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are off the list of available free agents both the players seeking employment and their agents understand that that pair of talents will help set the barometer for compensation going forward.  

For many it will mean an increase in asking price when the biggest names are already gone.  So there is risk in waiting, but you don't see a huge amount of free agent movement as of yet.  That circumstance will change by the second week in January, but it is tough waiting for something to happen when the best talents are still indeed on the board.