The New York Mets have been showing signs recently that they were bouncing back from their early-season offensive struggles. Unfortunately, those travails returned with a vengeance yesterday. The Mets managed to scratch out only one single, solitary run against the Atlanta Braves over 14 innings of their doubleheader. As disappointing as that was, it's also rather miraculous that they were able to cash in that lone run for a split of the doubleheader. But that's the kind of season it's been for the Mets as they have battled continuous adversity to hang onto their tenuous lead in the NL East.
Many of their key hitters whose personal struggles have hampered the club's offense for much of the season have bounced back to more respectable numbers. Pete Alonso has seemingly rediscovered the best version of himself from his rookie campaign in 2019. James McCann has overcome his horrendous start to put up fairly solid numbers. Jeff McNeil has been slashing .344/.420/.443 in July, although his recent "fatigue" issues with his leg are somewhat worrisome. Dominic Smith has slashed .263/.337/.513 this month which, while not peak offense for Dom, is a huge improvement over his early numbers. Brandon Nimmo and J.D. Davis have both hit well all season, despite prolonged injury absences. The bench has contributed some solid numbers, also.
One key player who continues to struggle is RF Michael Conforto. Conforto struggled early, then missed a big chunk of time with a leg injury. He came back still ice cold but looked like he was turning it around with a game-winning home run in the final contest against the Pirates, then 2 more HR in the first game in Cincinnati. However, he's gone 2-24 since that game and is a big reason the Mets still struggle for offensive consistency.
The Mets' best plan for Michael Conforto likely continues to be penciling his name into the lineup and hoping that he can turn things around and be the consistent lefty power bat that he's been for his entire Major League career. Still, it's hard to deny how genuinely terrible he's been since returning from the injury on June 23. After slashing .136/.286/.182 over 8 games in June, Conforto's .179/.313/.388 line in July isn't much of an improvement. At some point, production is going to take precedent over patience. Conforto is going to start losing playing time unless he can show that he can sustain a hot streak longer than 3 or 4 games.
With 243 plate appearances in 2021, there's virtually no chance for Conforto to get his numbers up to anything resembling what we would have expected heading into the season. It's not going to help his cause when he looks for a deal from the Mets or other bidders as he enters free agency this offseason, although, in fairness, his MLB track record is long enough that he should be able to get a solid deal from someone. What matters for the 2021 Mets is that Conforto gets off the schneid and offers some lineup protection to Alonso, Smith, Davis, et al.
4 comments:
Feel better, Mike.
The other Mike, Conforto, has a truly sick bat.
I was half hoping the Mets would deal him away during this rental period of the year since he'll walk away at year's end for nothing anyway, but they're not going to net much with the numbers he's posting in 2021.
Instead they are going to try to low ball him into a long term contract which his agent will laugh at and then the Mets will lose him and be chastised for being cheapskates. They're kind of in a no-win situation unless Conforto magically heats up significantly for August and September.
It will be interesting to see if the Mets sign or trade for an outfielder before Sunday
I'd trade Smith and JD before I let Conforto go.
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