Reese Kaplan -- Trying to Comprehend the Mets Lineup Decisions

A few articles have been published recently about the curious decision to take Harrison Bader out of the lineup against right handed pitching to make regular playing time available for the slumping .185 hitting lefty swinger, D.J. Stewart.  Universally the authors are all against this strategy.  To his credit, Bader has said all of the right things but the frustration, the decision to accept the Mets contract and the disrespect for what he has done with the bat all crept into the narrative.

Of course, the situation with Bader is not unique.  We have all seen inexplicable lineup decisions made in the recent past with Daniel Vogelbach continuing to get inserted there pretty much daily despite his lack of productivity.  We remember well the explanation that high on base percentage was the reason for why it was done, yet it appears that former GM Billy Eppler was dictating to Hall of Fame level manager Buck Showalter who should play and who should not.  (By the way, look up the career numbers for Vogelbach and Stewart.  It is like looking in a mirror.)

Other articles have arisen recently regarding whether or not Carlos Mendoza has the traditional managerial freedom to dictate his own lineups.  One piece recently profiled both Mendoza and Aaron Boone in this regard.  While there was no direct conversation with Mendoza, the Boone feedback was adamant that he and his bench coach debated who to play and where in the lineup to place them.  

Boone said it was true across the board in baseball and people have observed Mendoza huddling with bench coach John Gibbons ostensibly for the same reason.

It has been reported that Carlos Mendoza and David Stearns are in constant communication.  That revelation is natural since Stearns and Mendoza are both new to the Mets and need to work together to make a unified front to creating a winning culture where one had not consistently existed in the recent past. 

One question that has arisen recently is about batting averages.  If you look up and down the more-or-less regular Mets lineup, Starling Marte pretty much stands alone as an everyday player without posting an embarrassing number.  Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor, Brett Baty and the catchers are all performing well under where they have done in the past or where they were expected to be.

Now apologists for their favorites try to turn themselves into statisticians, opining that batting average is so last century as an important metric.  They point out that getting on base is more critical as is run production.  In those regards you can make some exceptions for guys like Alonso and Lindor but it is truly confounding in the case of the sub-Mendoza Stewart who is just a career .217 hitter. 

Realizing that many members of the lineup are expected to take bases on balls rather than swinging the bat to drive in runs is a new and difficult reality to accept if indeed that approach is what is being preached.  

The long balls are not becoming few and far between and even well struck doubles seem to be something of a rarity.  

With a club whose pitching is usually better than its hitting, this puzzling lack of swinging with authority is indeed frustrating.

When the club is hitting as expected, the players they have in the lineup are certainly capable of delivering the run production necessary to win games.  However, removing the hotter hitters to make room for colder ones could be a sign of a rookie manager or a meddling GM.  It certainly doesn´t appear to be a winning design to advance beyond a .500 record.