Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
It was a meager Tuesday night for the New York Mets’ offense as the team lost a second consecutive game to the Chicago Cubs. The Mets had a chance to strike early against Cubs starter Adrian Sampson when Daniel Vogelbach came to the plate with two runners on and two out. Vogelbach had no answer for Sampson’s changeup and grounded out weakly to end the inning.
Vogelbach’s 0-for-3 performance at the plate last night was no outlier pertaining to his last two months. The Mets’ left-handed slugger is now 0-for-7 in this series against the Cubs and is slashing .161/.297/.161 in September with zero extra-base hits. Vogelbach also finds himself in a forty-two at-bat stretch where he has not hit a home run. His last long ball was 23 days ago, on August 22 against the New York Yankees.
While it might not be fair to focus solely on Vogelbach’s offensive struggles, Billy Eppler brought him to the Mets to hit in the middle of the lineup. It is also evident that when Vogelbach produces, so do the Mets. In games won this season, Vogelbach is slashing .312/.442/.520. In losses, he is slashing a putrid .051/.196/.128.
In the bigger picture, the Mets need other players to perform better out of the designated hitter role. After bringing in Tyler Naquin, Darin Ruf, and Vogelbach, the Mets’ offensive production from the DH is one of the worst in MLB. The Mets’ DH position ranks 24th in OPS and 25th in slugging percentage. The Marlins, Tigers, and Pirates are ranked higher than the Mets in OPS recorded by a DH. The Mets’ DH position has also only hit 14 home runs in 514. Four of the long balls were hit by J.D. Davis before he was traded to San Francisco at the trade deadline.
The plan to have players platoon out of the DH role has not faired well for the Mets either. When Buck Showalter has pinch hit for a DH this season, they have slashed .067/.333/.267. Only JD Davis has hit a pinch-hit home run this year for the Mets and that was back on July 30 against the Marlins.
Ruf, on the other hand, has been miserable since being traded to the Mets. During his tenure in Queens, Ruf has not hit a home run, is slugging .196, and has an OPS+ of 7. It has also been night and day when looking at Ruf’s splits against lefties for his career and his time with the Mets. For his career, Ruf has an OPS of .897 and 39 of his 67 total home runs against left-handers. In New York this year, Ruf is slashing .114/.184/.200 against southpaws and has not hit a home run.
The struggles at the DH position (and injuries) have also forced Mets’ top prospect Mark Vientos into the big leagues. Vientos was a force against left-handed pitching in Syracuse this year, hitting to an OPS of 1.140 with 13 home runs and had 24 home runs overall. The youngster is 0-for-6 in limited time since being promoted to the big leagues. It is unreasonable to believe that calling up Vientos will relieve the Mets of their offensive woes when the prospect is getting limited at-bats.
The Mets will need to get their DH and offense going in the final three weeks of the season. Since winning the series against the Dodgers at home, the Mets are 5-6 in games against the Nationals, Pirates, Marlins, and Cubs. In those six games, they’ve lost, the Mets offense has averaged 1.7 runs.
