The New York Mets have no plans to move Curtis Granderson out of the leadoff spot where he performed so well during the 2015 season. While the search is on to find a center fielder to platoon with Juan Lagares, that has less to do with making a change at the top of the order and more about lengthening the lineup.
“The more we can lengthen our lineup out, the more we can become a very dangerous club,” special assistant J.P. Ricciardi said on Friday.
“Arguably you can say Granderson was our MVP last year as far as consistency from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. And you look up and see what he did in the World Series with a broken hand is pretty amazing. But I really liked him in the leadoff spot. I wouldn’t be real quick to get him out of there.” (ESPN New York)
Assistant general manager John Ricco: “The money we signed him to (four years, $60 million), people look at that and say, ‘OK, well, that’s money you pay to a middle-of-the-order guy, not a top-of-the-order guy.’ We look at it like those are fungible dollars. He gave us an MVP-type season in the leadoff spot. And we see no reason why he can’t do that again.”
I think we can all agree with Ricco that Granderson was without question the most valuable player of the Mets this season.
Granderson took over the leadoff spot for the Mets and became a catalyst for the team, seemingly finding himself in the middle of every rally and igniting many of them with either a walk, a hit, or a leadoff home run.
He finished the season with a .364 on-base percentage and .821 OPS while collecting 91 walks, 33 doubles, 26 home runs, 11 stolen bases, and 98 runs scored. His walk rate was the highest of his career and his 70 RBI out of the leadoff spot put an exclamation point on his overall offensive production which resulted in a 132 wRC+ and 5.1 WAR.
After the World Series, we learned that Granderson played with an injured left thumb that he jammed diving into second base during Game 3 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field. He was still able to hit three homers in the World Series loss to the Royals, bad thumb and all. The morning after the Mets lost the series, an MRI revealed torn ligaments resulting in surgery for his ailing left thumb. He’ll be ready for Spring Training.
With the expected losses of Yoenis Cespedes and Daniel Murphy, the Mets will need Granderson to have a repeat performance in 2016. And while I had my doubts about him a year ago, I’m now confident that Grandy can be relied upon for another remarkable season in 2016.
