In an article from Tim Healey of Newsday, New York Mets skipper Mickey Callaway set forth some crystal-clear goals regarding what he expects from his team on the defensive side of things.
After a dropped pop fly on a miscommunication between Dominic Smith and Amed Rosario resulted in the winning run crossing the plate for the Giants in Monday night’s extra-inning, 2-1 win over the Mets, Callaway naturally stressed the importance of good fundamentals on defense.
“Defense needs to be paramount. We’ve seen when we play good defense we win games,” he said. “[Monday] night, we didn’t play great defense in one inning and we ended up losing the game because of it.”
To be perfectly honest, the Mets haven’t been playing great defense all season.
As per Fangraphs, the Mets rank 28th in MLB in defensive runs saved with -88 DRS, are 29th in ultimate zone rating (-29.1 UZR), and are dead last in defensive wins above replacement in all of baseball with -40.1.
“If we’re going to lean on our pitchers to carry us where we need to be, I feel like everybody in the organization is starting to understand our defense needs to improve,” Callaway noted. “When you’re trying to develop people, you’re not developing a one-faceted player.”
The Mets have struggled to find consistent defensive productivity out of there younger infielders like Rosario, Smith, Flores, and even newcomer Jeff McNeil, who actually appears to be more talented at second base than previously advertised.
Even Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo, to a lesser extent, have shown that they’re still not yet “there” on that side of the chalk.
“You have to value defense just as much as hitting, just as much as bunting, just as much as [other aspects of the game],” Callaway said. “You have to value every part of that player to make him a winning player. If you don’t, things are going to be left by the wayside and it’s going to cost you games.”
Clearly.
