Updated Potential Mets Lineups For The 2019 Season

According to various reports, the Mets might be set in the outfield after yesterday’s trade in which the team acquired Keon Broxton from the Milwaukee Brewers.

While many people are disappointed to hear that, it doesn’t mean that they are done making moves to improve the team as a whole. However, for the sake of this article, I am going to make my prediction for the lineup this season as if they are not adding any other pieces.

So, I will list out my lineups vs. right-handers and left-handers first and then explain my rationale behind it.

Mets vs. RHP

Brandon Nimmo LF
Wilson Ramos C
Robinson Cano 2B
Michael Conforto RF
Todd Frazier 1B
Jeff McNeil 3B
Amed Rosario SS
Juan Lagares CF

Mets vs. LHP

Brandon Nimmo LF
Wilson Ramos C
Robinson Cano 2B
Todd Frazier 1B
Michael Conforto RF
Amed Rosario SS
Jeff McNeil 3B
Keon Broxton CF

For starters, Brandon Nimmo simply belongs at the top of the lineup and I don’t think there are many that would disagree with me on that considering his .404 OBP in 2018.

In the two-hole, I go with a little bit of a strange choice with Wilson Ramos. My reasoning for that is so the team can split up Nimmo and Cano (both lefties). If Ramos produces at the level he did last year in which he had a .845 OPS, hitting him this high in the order shouldn’t be a problem even if it is not the traditional approach. Otherwise, the team would potentially have had three lefties hit back-to-back-to-back.

While it probably makes more sense to move Cano down or up a spot, Mickey Callaway has already said that Cano is his three-hitter, making him, by default, the third hitter in the lineup for all the permutations made.

After that, against righties I have Conforto hitting fourth and fifth against lefties. Against southpaws, it would be a good idea to have no point in the lineup where two left-handed hitters are back-to-back. Therefore, Todd Frazier moves up to the cleanup spot.

Moving on, against right-handers Jeff McNeil hits sixth in the order and switches with Amed Rosario against left-handers in order to, again, avoid having two lefties hit in a row.

Rosario moves up to the second spot in the lineup on days where Travis d’Arnaud or Kevin Plawecki start over Wilson Ramos at the catcher position, with either of the two hitting seventh, essentially trading places.

Lastly, the team’s center fielder always hits at the bottom of the lineup with Juan Lagares in against right-handers and Keon Broxton in against all left-handers.

The reason for that? Lagares had a .870 OPS against right-handers in his limited at-bats in 2018 as compared to a .664 OPS against southpaws. He was also better against righties in 2017 with a .687 OPS against righties as compared to a .604 OPS against left-handers.

Broxton, though, hits lefties very well, having a .790 OPS against them as compared to a .708 OPS against right-handers. That, in turn, makes for a strangely decent center field platoon between the two right-handed hitting defensive wizards.

However, this permutation of the lineups is not what should be expected for the majority of the season and because of that, I have made my mock lineups for when Peter Alonso is called up as well, which should be no later than the end of April and probably will be much sooner.

In the way I set it up, I have McNeil playing third base against right-handers while I have Frazier starting at the hot corner against all left-handers. That being said, they are likely going to be forced into some sort of timeshare that is not exactly perfect in that regard.

Right away, as you will see, I have Alonso taking a big role in the Mets’ lineup in 2019 given his strong power showing in the minors last year and Brodie Van Wagenen’s aparent confidence in the first baseman.