It’s only a little over a month into the season, but as the Mets head into the one-quarter pole of 2016, it hasn’t all been peaches and cream for our hometown team. Matt Harvey has been a shell of the pitcher who returned in such indomitable style a season ago – this when all of us were expecting even more dominance in his second year removed from Tommy John surgery.
It’s been well established by team brass and management that the Mets offense is one that will pummel the opposition with home runs – as their league leading total will tell you. We all know this isn’t a small ball team – and while there’s nothing wrong with a lineup featuring a one through eight who can pop one out at any time – it comes with the typical feast or famine streakiness that usually plagues all such teams.
There are a few other minor concerns or hiccups, but the one area of this team that has performed glaringly ugly so far this season, has been the woeful production off the bench – a bench which I called the strongest we’ve had in many years in my 2016 season preview.
Wilmer Flores is batting .179 with a .564 OPS and 56 wRC+ in 49 plate appearances, and his -0.2 fWAR would be the worst on the team if not for Alejandro De Aza who is batting .188 with a .568 OPS and a 57 wRC+ in 35 plate appearances. And while you could make a case that both of these players are victims of inconsistent playing time, the fact is that landscape is not going to change for either of them unless the Mets get socked with a few devastating injuries to their regular starters.
And while inconsistency may explain the underwhelming performances of Flores and De Aza, it provides no such safe haven for backup catcher Kevin Plawecki – who has looked absolutely overmatched by MLB pitching. Plawecki is batting .189 with a team low .522 OPS in 45 plate appearances.
Then there’s old reliable, Eric Campbell, who hasn’t accrued nearly the playing time of the other three, but is certainly veering into ugly terrain as his 35.7 strikeout rate and his .182 slugging percentage would attest.
What makes things worse is when Terry Collins decides to give 2-3 of his regulars the same game off, and then plops 2-3 of these guys into the starting lineup at the same time.
As I prefaced in the beginning of this post, this could all be an anomaly or just a really awful looking small sample size – but what if it isn’t? What if Wilmer Flores and Alejandro De Aza can’t adjust to their reduced roles? What if Kevin Plawecki really isn’t major league ready? What if Eric Campbell is just… well… Eric Campbell?
On the plus side, Juan Lagares has totally embraced his limited role and has provided the team with some timely hits and sparkling defense. Now if only the other four can get with the program.
