Contrary to what many felt about it when the move was made by Terry Collins, myself included, Curtis Granderson has been a fantastic leadoff hitter since being slotted there 52 times in the 2014 season. He was, in essence, the full time leadoff hitter last year as well occupying the top spot in 138 of 144 games he started.
What have the Mets been missing? A bona fide number two hitter. They need someone with a high contact rate, low strikeout rate, and someone who can have quality at-bats to help with situational run scoring. Much has been made of the Mets propensity to be reliant on the homer. Having someone with such traits man that crucial spot in the order could alleviate some of these concerns.
The Mets have been deficient in the two hole since the departure of Paul Lo Duca following the 2007 season. Over his pair of seasons with the Mets, as the two, the Duke hit an even .300 with an OBP of up around .341. I can remember Reyes getting on, stealing second base, and Pauly going to the right side to set up a Beltran sac fly like it was yesterday. Staking a pitcher to a lead in the first can be quite the panacea.
The potential solution was on display again Monday for the eighth time this season. Slotting Asdrubal Cabrera into the two hole in the order makes the offense more formidable and the lineup much longer. Let’s take a look at the numbers.
In those eight games, A-C has 36 plate appearances, 11 hits, a homer and five RBI and 6 runs scored. That is good enough for a line of .344/.417/.500. Not “two” bad. The best part of this small sample size? The Mets are 7-1 in those games.
The current ‘full time’ number two hitter, David Wright, has hit a respectable .268 with 4 homers and 7 RBI. The alarming stat, though, is a strikeout rate of an astounding 28.8%. In comparison, Cabrera’s K-Rate while hitting second is 15.4%. In his defense, Wright does walk at a much higher rate than Cabrera as his excellent .397 OBP would attest, but it is challenging for Grandy to go first to third on a base on balls.
Slotting Wright sixth behind Duda allows Terry to keep his L-R-L-R trend that he loves so much, and drops Walker down to the seven spot. Spreading out the switch hitting options in the lineup is also beneficial when it comes to the late innings and how the opposition choose to utilize its bullpen.
When a team struggles to manufacture runs, these are the type of inadequacies the club can look to improve to fix the problem. Time will tell if Terry and the front office are willing to make the move on a more permanent basis.
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