Photo Credit: Citibank
Earlier this afternoon while speaking at Daniel Carter Beard Junior High School 189Q in Queens, David Wright praised the Mets young talent in Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil as the bright spots of the team’s disaster 2019 season.
“When I talked about some of the bright spots, we have a legitimate threat for the guy to win the home run crown, and we have a legitimate threat for the guy to win the batting title…” he said.
“Pretty good pieces to build around, and certainly reason for optimism,” per Kemmu Dejohn of Newsday.
With the team currently sitting nine games under .500 and 14 games back of the first-place Atlanta Braves in the NL East, their preseason plan to contend in 2019 has been a major failure. Offseason moves by general manager Brodie Van Wagenen have flopped, but the pair of Mets’ All-Star position players in Alonso and McNeil have impressed fans across all of baseball-including former Met and current front office executive David Wright. The dazzling future that the captain, a seven-time All-Star himself, sees in these two young stars is attributed to the monster offensive production they have been putting up for New York in 2019.
Leading the National League in the latest poll for this season’s Rookie of the Year race, Alonso is slashing .265/.360/.610 and is ranked third on the NL home run leaderboard with 33, just two shy of leader Christian Yelich’s 35. His 3.9 offensive WAR is ranked 5th among all NL qualified batters. He leads MLB rookies in home runs, doubles with 21, walks with 42, and hits with 95. He’s ranked fifth in the NL in OPS with a .970.
Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of McNeil’s callup to the big leagues and the lefty leads all of baseball with an impressive .339 batting average. He is one of 19 qualified big leaguers on pace to hit at least .300 for a full season. His 26 doubles are ranked 5th on the NL leaderboard, and his 3.5 WAR is ranked 8th among NL position players.
While praising the club’s homegrown talent, the captain still recognizes that the frustrating season has otherwise been a blunder. Dejohn reported that Wright stated, “There have certainly been some bright spots, but overall, I think when you put together a roster the way Brodie and the front office has, there’s, I’m sure, a lot of blame to go around, and Brodie’s taking his fair share.”
When asked about upcoming trade deadline decisions, as the special advisor to COO Jeff Wilpon and GM Brodie Van Wagenen, Wright said that those decisions are “above his pay grade.”
As the July 31 deadline quickly approaches, the team will try to sell off pending free agents for young talent to compliment their cornerstone players in Alonso and McNeil. Fans will hope that an offseason of underwhelming player acquisitions by Van Wagenen has taught the first-year executive a bit more about evaluating consequential player moves.
