The New York Mets have seemingly struggled offensively over the last several years, prompting fans to call for better hitters, and more offense. I know I certainly have. The Mets front office has sometimes responded by signing free agent sluggers like Jason Bay and current Met Curtis Granderson. Two players that both had previously produced near MVP seasons before signing with the Mets. The results have been disappointing to say the least, if not disastrous in Bay’s case.
Why have these sluggers struggled to hit in a Mets uniform? Did they forget how to hold the bat? Have they forgotten to identify the little red dot that appears on the ball when the pitcher throws a slider? Did they lose their bat speed to the point they could no longer catch up to a fastball?
Most likely, it’s none of those particular factors that led to their rapid offensive decline. They both came from AL East teams that play the majority of their games in band boxes like Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, The Rogers Centre in Toronto, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards. And yes, switching leagues can oftentimes lead to some unfamiliarity among the opposing pitchers. But after taking a look at some of the current Mets road splits this season, it seems as though the problem with Granderson, at least, is the field which he calls home.
Granderson finished up his inaugural Mets season with some seemingly pedestrian numbers, batting .227 with a .326 on-base and .388 slugging percentage in 654 plate appearances. He was good for 27 doubles, 20 home runs and 66 RBI, but his .714 OPS was an 11-year career low, far below his .830 OPS average in his previous four seasons.
Although the lack of RBIs can be attributed to batting leadoff for the majority of the season. Believe it or not, Granderson’s season graded out as slightly above average with the league wide void of offense. The following numbers are very telling of the effects of Citi Field on Granderson in 2014
Home: .195 AVG, .290 OBP, .340 SLG, 16 2B, 7 HR, 26 RBI, .630 OPS
Road: .261 AVG, .360 OBP, .436 SLG, 11 2B, 13 HR, 40 RBI, .797 OPS
Quite a stark contrast on the road from the numbers he produced at home, and almost twice as many longballs.
No one in their right mind expected Granderson to put up the same gaudy power numbers that he posted in his former home park in the Bronx. A ballpark that even turned Eric Young Jr. into a power hitter for at least one night last May, when he blasted a ball several rows deep into the right field seats.
In a fair home park, it stands to reason that Grandy would’ve probably had between 25-30 home runs this season. His road numbers were actually really impressive compared to the rest of the NL that played a similar schedule away from their home park.
Granderson was a road warrior for the Mets. His 13 road home runs were good for 6th in the NL and tied with none other than Giancarlo Stanton. His 40 RBI, with most of his AB coming right after the pitchers spot, was in the top 15. And he also ranked 13th in runs scored with 42 and 3rd in walks with 45. Granderson was quite a different player on the road than what we saw from him at Citi Field this season.
Only five NL players had more homers on the road this season than Granderson, and one of those five was teammate Lucas Duda, who had more away home runs than all NL hitters with the exception of the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo.
Duda finished the 2014 season with 16 HR away from the unfriendly confines and was quite the road warrior as well, posting a .275/.365/.496 slash with 49 RBI and a .861 OPS.
Those numbers were good for second in home runs and RBI on the road. Considering his struggles against LHP in 2014, there are very few hitters in baseball that fared better versus right-handed pitching than Lucas Duda. Fortunately for the Mets, the big man can hit it out of any stadium, but it sure seems like he lost at least a handful of round trippers in the early part of the season with the wind blowing in at Citi Field in April, May and the early part of June, particularly in the vicinity of right and right-center.
Duda and Grandy weren’t the only hitters that had increased production away from Citi Field, as Daniel Murphy led the NL in hits on the road, and was the only player in the NL that topped the century mark with 103 base-knocks. Freddie Freeman and Buster Posey finished in a tie for second with 95. Here’s Murphy’s 2014 road stats which are quite impressive:
.322 AVG, .359 OBP, .447 SLG, 21 2B, 5 HR, 33 RBI, .805 OPS
Among all NL hitters with at least 200 road AB, only Buster Posey (.348), and Juan Uribe (.333) had a higher batting average, and only Jonathan Lucroy (34), Adrian Gonzalez (23), and Freddie Freeman (22) had more doubles than Murph.
That level of offensive production from second base, in the current offensive drought that the league is suffering through, is pretty close to irreplaceable. Murphy certainly looked much better defensively at third base, but that’s another story altogether. For yet another comparison, Robinson Cano slashed at .314/.382/.454 for the year.
Travis d’Arnaud (.757 OPS), Eric Campbell (.729), Anthony Recker and EYJ. all fared better on the road, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis (.975) and Dilson Herrera (1.060) absolutely crushed the ball on the road, albeit, in a limited number of AB. The difference is astounding however, as Kirk had an OPS of .643 at home, and Herrera had pitcher like offensive numbers at Citi with a .326 OPS, again, small sample size.
The 2014 Mets were second on the road, trailing only the star-studded Dodgers, in hits, runs, walks, batting average, and OBP.
They finished third in doubles and RBI behind the Dodgers, and likely NL Champion San Francisco Giants, 4th in OPS and SB, and 7th in HR and OBP on the road, finishing just one HR behind the Colorado Rockies. In short, the Mets were one of the best offensive teams in the National League on the road.
The aforementioned numbers also include some unsightly numbers that our pitchers contributed at the plate – numbers which were historically bad and almost unfathomable.
The Mets played the entire first month of the season without getting a single hit from a pitcher. Dillon Gee and Bartolo Colon combined to go 3-for-100 at the plate this season. That is not a typo. That’s right, they hit .030.
Mejia, Matsuzaka, Montero and Torres, unbelievably, were worse, as they contributed ZERO hits in 44 trips to the plate. That’s 3-for-144 (.021 Avg). Even for pitchers, that’s unheard of.
Conversely, the Mets hit .224 in their home park, easily worst in the NL, and only the wildly underachieving Braves and punchless Padres scored less runs than the Mets did at home.
So maybe bringing in the fences is a reasonably good idea. I think our current crop of hitters aren’t nearly as bad as the overall numbers suggest. It stands to reason that if the Mets were at or near the top of almost every offensive category on the road when compared to teams that played similar schedules and under similar conditions, that Citi Field is doing more damage to our offense than the opposing pitchers they are facing. The evidence suggests that bringing in the fences, specifically in right and right-center, is a no-brainer. Thanks for reading and Lets Go Mets.
