Mets’ Offense Must Build On This Small Bit of Momentum

Seriously, just when it seemed like the New York Mets were getting healthier and closer to full strength, the injury bug hit again, but to a different part of the roster.

While it feels like a million years ago at this point, the Mets received good news last week for their less-than-100% offense. Jeff McNeil was nearing a return, as was Michael Conforto. Brandon Nimmo would hopefully not be too far behind those two, and maybe they’d even get J.D. Davis back before the All-Star break. For an offense that’s played with less than a full deck over the past month-plus, this was tremendous news.

But that’s when the pitching staff began getting ravaged by injuries. Sure, we can breathe a sigh of relief after watching Jacob deGrom make his start on Monday without any issues, and the fact that Marcus Stroman‘s sore hip doesn’t seem to be a big deal. That’s where the good news ends, though. Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard obviously haven’t thrown a pitch yet this season. Meanwhile, Jordan Yamamoto has been on the 60-day IL since the end of May, Joey Lucchesi‘s season is now over, Robert Gsellman won’t throw for at least six weeks, and Jeurys Familia is dealing with a hip impingement.

Phew, that’s…a lot. It’s not as if the Mets haven’t dealt with this already in 2021. But this is different because it’s the area of New York’s roster that’s been carrying manager Luis Rojas‘ club during the first half.

Among the Best

Overall, New York’s pitching staff has performed among the best in baseball. Their cumulative 11.3 fWAR and 3.11 ERA both rank second in the league. It’s not as if one part of the staff is carrying the other across the finish line here, either. The rotation has been terrific all year, but so has the bullpen.

These are topics we’ve discussed recently, but it bears repeating. New York’s rotation has tossed a league-low 341 1/3 innings, yet it ranks second in fWAR (8.7) and first in ERA (2.64). It’s a similar story for the relief corps — their 243 innings pitched is the sixth-fewest in baseball, but their 2.5 fWAR and 3.78 ERA are both among the top 10 heading into Thursday.

Watching the rotation perform this way isn’t necessarily surprising, although it is shocking that it’s happened without any contributions from Carrasco or Syndergaard. The effectiveness of the bullpen — especially with the way this area of the roster has been stretched during the Mets’ injury scares — has been the more surprising sight. It’s been a welcome one since recent history tells us an effective bullpen is key for the Mets to be successful (like the ’06 and ’15 teams).

…Not Among the Best 

One area many of us didn’t think would be a weak spot in 2021 is the offense (myself included). After all, with guys like Nimmo, McNeil, Conforto, Davis, and Pete Alonso already in the mix, they were pretty good. Add in Francisco Lindor‘s bat and the lineup got that much deeper and more dynamic.

Yet, that hasn’t exactly been the case. That’s why they play the game, folks.

Overall this season, the Mets’ offense has produced a 94 wRC+, which ranks 18th in baseball. And while they’ve displayed more power since the start of the season, New York’s 68 dingers are tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the second-fewest. With all the injuries to the position-player side of the roster, it’s easy to just assume things were worse when Rojas was forced to pencil in a bunch of the ReplaceMets into his lineup each night.

That’s not entirely the case.

Through May 16th (the day Conforto and McNeil joined Nimmo and Davis on the injured list), the Mets had produced a 93 wRC+ and just 27 homers through 1,236 total plate appearances. From May 17th through June 22nd, New York’s team wRC+ was slightly better at 94 (even with getting shutout four times since June 17th) and they slugged 40 homers in 1,169 total plate appearances. Before they began getting shutout on a near-nightly basis this past week, the team wRC+ for the ReplaceMets was up at 106.

Time to Wake Up, And Stay Awake

As the Mets’ offense began driving off a cliff last Thursday, it almost seemed poetic that the organization’s depth was starting to putter as reinforcements were the way back to the active roster. They had successfully held the fort down and kept New York in first place, which is more than anyone could’ve asked for.

Once pitchers started hitting the injured list at a rapid rate, it again shines the light on an offense that has underperformed for the majority of this regular season. It’s not often that a club has the starting rotation, bullpen, offense, and defense firing on all cylinders 100% of the time. Typically, two or three of these four will suffice for a winning team. The Mets have been fortunate to have their pitching and defense carry the club as far as they have.

It can’t be expected for the pitching staff to continue carrying the squad, though. We’ve already seen the bullpen recently bend on a couple of occasions because every once in a while, they just aren’t going to get the job done.

Now is the time for the offense to wake up and be the cohesive unit we all expected them to be back on Opening Day. Hopefully, the days of Jerad Eickhoff pinch-hitting and supplying the Mets with their first hit of the game in the fifth inning — like he did on Tuesday night — will be a distant memory within a few weeks. Wednesday’s seven-run output is a great start, and what’ll be crucial moving forward is that this is the start of more consistent production, not just a hopeful blip on the radar.