Juan Lagares is red-hot. Again. While the Mets offense has been somewhat stagnant of late, the gifted center fielder has been anything but, batting .440 (11-for-25) over the last two series against the Giants and Phillies. Lagares is batting .283 for the season which is second only to hits-leader Daniel Murphy. Lagares leads all Mets with a 3.2 WAR.
On Monday, Lagares had three hits in the Mets 4-3 loss to the Giants. While hardly mentioned anywhere, he has become one of the team’s best weapons against lefthanded pitching and sports a .339 batting average against them with a robust .458 slugging percentage and .802 OPS.
Amazingly, Lagares has done most of his damage batting in the bottom of the order and in front of the likes of Ruben Tejada or the pitcher. But what’s interesting to note is that while the Mets have struggled all year at the leadoff spot producing a .241 average and a .320 OBP, Lagares would seem to be the Mets best choice out of the current crop to bat in the first position currently held by Curtis Granderson. While Grandy sports a .226 average and .320 OBP in the leadoff spot, Lagares has batted .300 with a .344 OBP in his 21 starts batting leadoff. His .777 OPS leads all Mets leadoff hitters.
Lagares seems to bestow catalyst-like tendencies and his speed is very underrated. He could be someone who can certainly grow into the leadoff role if given the chance. At the very least. Lagares should bat leadoff when you have a lefthander on the mound. But what the hell do I know…
How about that, 300 words about Lagares and I didn’t even mention his defense…
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