On the bright side, John Mayberry only struck out once yesterday.
After Mayberry went 0-for-4 to drop his average to .140 in Sunday’s series finale against the Marlins, Joe D asked me to dig up Mayberry’s splits. I did, but quickly found that there’s no way to spin it. Mayberry has been BAD.
Mayberry has been bad against lefties. He’s been bad against righties. He’s been bad as a starter. He’s been bad off the bench. He’s been bad in the day. He’s been bad at night. He’s been bad at home. He’s been bad on the road. Two of his seven hits have come on the first pitch, so maybe he’s been better (less bad?) when he’s been a bit more aggressive. But overall, this season has been a catastrophe for Mayberry.
So why was Mayberry — signed to provide an offensive boost against southpaws — in the lineup yesterday against the righty David Phelps? Who knows. Maybe Terry Collins had to “get him going.”
Maybe Collins thought Phelps’ finesse style (this is a nice way of saying he can’t throw very hard) would allow Mayberry to catch up to a ball and send it out of the ballpark. Maybe somebody else just needed a day off. But it was certainly a peculiar move, and it clearly didn’t pay off (although Mayberry did make a nice diving catch to rob Dee Gordon of a single early in the game).
What are the Mets to do with Mayberry? He clearly isn’t performing well enough to earn starts. In theory, he should be a serviceable bat against lefties off the bench, but he isn’t performing in that role either.
His value has been reduced further by Lucas Duda‘s success against lefties. Mayberry’s role on the team isn’t too big, but the Mets need all hands on deck, and considering how weak their bench is, Mayberry will have to start carrying his weight at some point. He has to turn it around. And unfortunately, that’s hard to do when you’re usually just sitting on a bench all game — you need to hit to play, but you need to play to hit.
With the Mets ready to implement their innovative four man bench again – actually three in theory because one is the backup catcher – Mayberry is now one third of the Mets offense off the bench.
Mayberry’s struggles are disappointing and a bit surprising considering how good he looked in Spring Training. But hey, so did Chris Young.
