Starling Marte Could Be the Key to Unlocking Mets’ Offensive Potential

Before the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement expired earlier this month, the New York Mets made numerous splashes in free agency, including the signing of outfielder Starling Marte.

Reaching the free-agent market for just the second time in his career, Marte wasn’t without a team for very long as the Mets landed him on a four-year, $78-million contract. With the 33-year-old signed through the 2025 campaign, this organization is counting on him being able to help lead them beyond their current postseason drought, which stands at five seasons.

For starters, it’s no hidden secret the Mets’ offense faltered significantly throughout the 2021 season, as they failed to effectively provide their pitching staff with enough run support on a daily basis. Though Marte has long passed the age-30 threshold, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon and best displayed that aspect last season.

Despite splitting time between the Oakland Athletics and Miami Marlins, the 6’1″ center fielder enjoyed plenty of success with both franchises, interestingly enough, resulting in one of the top statistical performances of his professional career.

Overall, Marte compiled 526 plate appearances in 120 games between the Athletics and Marlins, where he posted 12 home runs, 55 RBIs, a .310/.383/.458 slashing line, a 134 wRC+ score and a career-best 5.5 fWAR rating.

Just on these merits alone, adding the 2016 National League All-Star to New York’s lineup provides an obvious improvement from multiple different standpoints. But if we dig deeper, we’ll also likely discover that the long-time Pittsburgh Pirate could solve several key offensive issues that plagued this club in 2021.

Starting at the top, the Mets’ roster failed to consistently hit for contact as they finished tied for the seventh-lowest AVG (.239) and produced the 12th-lowest BABIP (.291) among all 30 teams in the majors, according to FanGraphs.com.

Granted, this wasn’t their most glaring offensive issue, however, it was one that largely prevented them from getting on-base at a high rate. As a result, this team earned the eighth-lowest wOBA (.307) and the 12th-lowest OBP (.315) amongst the rest of the majors.

When it comes to Marte, the right-hander has prided himself on serving as a reliable on-base weapon through the majority of his 10 major league seasons, and didn’t encounter any issues proving to be exactly that this past season.

Showcasing his stellar contact-generating ability, the Dominican native registered a .310 AVG and a .372 BABIP – the third-highest of his career – both of which finished in the top five among all qualified hitters in the majors. In turn, his on-base metrics soared through the roof, allowing him to create the best OBP (.383) and wOBA (.364) of his career.

Putting these impressive results into perspective, Marte’s high-contact tendencies have resulted in numerous successful performances when it comes to reaching base consistently, especially over his last three seasons.

Aside from the 2017 and 2018 campaigns, as shown in the chart above, Marte’s rolling expected wOBA has largely remained far above the major league average line for most of his career. But in particular, he’s rarely ever stumbled into extended on-base slumps since 2019.

While May 2019 wasn’t kind to him, as his rolling xwOBA dropped off considerably, since then, it’s ranged consistently around .370. In 2021, it reached the highest it’s ever climbed before as it rose to a career-high .483.

In all likelihood, Marte will be slotted into either the first or second spot in New York’s lineup, positioning him ahead of the team’s biggest run producers, Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor. Based on his remarkable on-base metrics, particularly from last season, chances are he’ll be able to create plenty of traffic on the bases in front of those two sluggers – something this club didn’t feature enough of previously.

Taking this topic even further, along with reaching base consistently, the former amateur free agent also possesses the skills to serve as an impact base runner.

Since 2013, Marte owns the second-most stolen bases (284) and the fifth-highest BsR – base running runs above average – (44.3) among all other qualified batters in the majors. Additionally, he’s also posted a speed score of at least 7.1 in six of his nine seasons during that same span.

Granted, the veteran righty isn’t the same player that averaged a 29.6 sprint speed in 2015 – which ranked in the 98th percentile in the majors. Having said that, his quickness can still provide a huge upside on the Mets’ roster moving forward, especially considering he boasted an 84th percentile sprint speed (28.4) in 2021.

Expanding on his results from last season, Marte finished with the highest BsR (12.3) and speed score (7.8) along with the most stolen bases (47) in the majors last season.

In comparison, New York recorded the third-lowest BsR (-13.5), were tied for the third-lowest speed score (3.7) and tied for the fifth-fewest stolen bases (54) amongst the rest of the competition.

Yes, that’s correct. Marte nearly swiped as many bags as the Mets did just by himself. But now with him under contract, there’s no question they’re about to become a much quicker squad in future seasons.

Paired with his on-base and base running abilities, the former Athletic also brings a decent amount of power to this offense, as he’s generated at least 12 home runs and a .450 slugging percentage in three of his previous four campaigns. But in the NL East division, there’s a pretty strong chance he could potentially crush close to 20 round-trippers per year.

Heading into next season, assuming it begins on time and without delay, New York’s batting order is slated to feature a fairly talented one-two punch atop of their lineup, with Marte and Brandon Nimmo setting the table for the rest of the group.

While the acquisition of Marte may not completely correct all of the club’s prior offensive concerns, at the very least, he should help transform them into a much more balanced group of hitters next season.