When the season began people questioned how the Mets were
going to find playing time for all of the credible major league ballplayers
Brodie Van Wagenen was bringing to Queens to begin the Mets’ quest of
post-season relevancy. Some players were
givens like Robinson Cano, Amed Rosario, Michael Conforto, Brett Lowrie and
eventually Yoenis Cespedes. Todd Frazier
was going to shift across the diamond to first base and Jeff McNeil was going
to be a supersub.
Scottish poet Robert Burns once famously penned, “The best
laid plans o’ mice and men often go awry." (The original Scottish may get lost in translation). The point is that no matter how you plan for
things, you never know how they’re going to turn out.
Right now no one could have predicted the break-out success
of Pete Alonso (just as no one could have predicted the season-long slumps of
Robinson Cano and Brandon Nimmo). Jeff
McNeil, not surprisingly, has forced his way into the lineup regularly, while
Dominic Smith (quite surprisingly) is swinging an even more potent bat than
The Squirrel. Brett Lowrie has yet to
play a game and the murmurs out of Florida are not good.
While the club has out of necessity had to roll with the
punches, particularly as the IL became crowded with the likes of Lowrie,
Frazier, Cespedes, McNeil, Nimmo, Cano and others, things are about to hit a
most interesting juncture of the season.
Thursday it was announced that Brandon Nimmo is beginning his rehab
assignment in the minors as he works his way back from neck problems. While everyone is rooting for the smiling
Wyomingite, the fact is he was struggling big-time from the beginning of the
season. Still, given his success in 2017
and the breakout in 2018, you’d have to figure he’s getting back into the
lineup regularly once he’s deemed healthy enough to do so.
So now you have Jeff McNeil hitting close to .340, Smith
north of .380, Alonso with his 20 HRs and 45 RBIs less than halfway through the season, and Cano’s reputation and
paycheck assuring him playing time.
Complicating matters is the fact that McNeil, Nimmo, Conforto and Smith
are all lefties. If offense was all that mattered, then it’s possible you’d see
a lineup with an outfield of Smith, Nimmo and Conforto, with McNeil at 3B.
But wait, say some folks, what about Todd Frazier?
My reply is, “So?
What about him?”
Frazier has become one of those sunk-cost contracts handed
out way too regularly under the previous regime. Coming off a .213 season he was signed and
hit an identical .213 last year to suggest it was not an aberration nor a small
sample size. This year he’s flirting reaching the mediocre .250 plateau (which is a quantum leap forward for the former Red/White
Sox/Yankees third baseman), but if your choice was playing a .386 hitting Smith
and a .337 hitting McNeil or benching one of them to get the .246 Frazier into the
lineup, I don’t know…it doesn’t seem like you need King Solomon to make that
decision.
Just as Juan Lagares has
played himself into a defensive replacement role, if you’re not going to cut them both loose then use them to their strengths. Don’t subject the starting lineup to
inferior production when better alternatives exist. If they're so good, then trade them! Ask another club to pay $9 million for Frazier's services...or Lagares' services...line forms to the left, no shoving now! Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
If and when Jed Lowrie ever emerges from the baseball
equivalent of the witness protection program, you may have to have a similar
evaluation vis a vis Robinson Cano, even if only temporarily. I’m not going to shed tears if Adeiny Hechavarria
misses ABs while he’s playing somewhat over his head. In his best season he’s not half the hitter
either of these two gentlemen are.
The whole off-season was about creating roster depth which
had previously not existed. It meant way
too many ABs were squandered on the likes of guys like Omar Quintanilla, Jose
Reyes, Adrian Gonzalez, Jose Bautista and James Loney. Going into this season there were grandiose
visions of how this club would not suffer the same fate and how folks would
have to adapt to new roles. Somehow the
names and the roles didn’t work out exactly as you’d envisioned.
7 comments:
Never works out as expected in Metsville, does it? Somehow, you left out flipping ranch hand La Absencia, who might have been raping up for re-entry right now if not tossed from his saddle by the Amazing Mr. Ed.
Lagares is hitting a Reyes-like .190. Release him, please, so he can go and hit .260 elsewhere and win another Gold Glove.
Nimmo should only return when fully healthy and really hitting, then play part time...seems fragile. At the same time, shrink Todd to lefties only, and DH,
This team never seems to gain traction...feeling more like a 75 win squad by the day. And another #12 pick in the draft.
By next spring, Kelenic will be the #1 offensive prospect in baseball. I am guessing.
All, of course, is well in Metsville, a mediocre little town in the middle of nowhere. It always is.
Ha ha, love my phone...not raping up for re-entry, ramping up for re-entry. LOL...or COL...Cry Out Loud...after all you are a Mets fan.
I know it's always fun for some to bash players when they struggle or get off to slow starts, but a little balance is called for.
Nimmo has struggled, but we don't know how much of that is due to the recently diagnosed bulging disc.
Yes, Frazier is only hitting around .250, but as recently as May 11, he was at .143, and recovering from an injury. As you pointed out, baseball is often a game of "who knew?". Frazier may regress to his .213 of last year, or he may return to his previous success and end the season with a 25 HR/80 RBI total, while providing solid D.
It will indeed be a struggle to find playing time for all those who have earned it, but that's the downside of extra depth.
With all of these problems, though, I maintain that if our 1-3 SPs were up to their norms, and that would carry over to less overwork for the pen, we'd be up there with the Phils right now.
As someone pointed out on the Baseball Night in NY show last night pointed out, the Mets are near the bottom of the league in defensive metrics.
Pitching and Defense win games. And they largely depend on each other. If those improve, we'll be fine. If not, it won't matter how we squeeze 10 pounds of hitting into a 5 pound bag of ABs.
There has been some chatter that Nimmo's problems may be career ending.
For now...
Conforto is set.
Keep playing Dom in left
Bring up Kemp
@Bill -- After two straight .213 years it's no longer a small sample. The recent hot streak is all it is. Sell high. But no one but Sandy is that stupid.
trade Lagares to Sandy
Frazier can carry his bag for him on the trip out west.
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