It has been a frustrating start for Jay Bruce in New York. With not much protection around him, he has been exposed at the plate and has struggled since joining the Mets.
Prior to being traded to New York, Bruce was having a tremendous offensive campaign. He had been hitting to a .265/.316/.559 slash with 25 homers and 80 RBI in 97 games with the Cincinnati Reds. Bruce seemed well on his way to having his best season since 2013 when he hit to a .262/.379/.428 slash with 30 homers and 100 RBI.
His numbers since coming to the Mets have paled in comparison to his early 2016 self. So far through 13 games, he has hit to a .160/.250/.280 slash with two homers and just five RBI. Of course this is a small sample size of just 50 plate appearances. At the same time though the Mets acquired Bruce with the probable knowledge of Yoenis Cespedes‘ issues that eventually landed him on the disabled list, hoping he could keep the offense going in his absence.
Bruce has yet to be the spark this team desperately needed. In the field, Bruce has also looked shaky at times. He is not known for his defensive prowess, something well documented prior to the trade, he is an offensive player. Bruce can be seen taking many awkward routes to balls hit to right, he generally makes the play but it does not always look pretty. The Mets though did not acquire him for his defense.
With Cespedes’ return looming this coming weekend in San Francisco, sans any setbacks, we could finally get to see the lineup this team envisioned. Cespedes will provide some protection for Bruce and vice-versa depending on how Terry Collins writes the lineup. Bruce though needs to get it going, as the struggling offense looks to help this team stay afloat in the race for the second Wild Card spot.
