BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – MAY 19: Juan Soto #22 of the New York Mets hits a single during the sixth … More
The idea the Mets could just pick up where they left off last season and continue seamlessly marching their way towards a long-awaited championship was never realistic.
But for six weeks — filled with timely hitting, surprisingly stout pitching, plenty of wins and the carryover of last fall’s immaculate vibes — they made it seem possible. The fast start afforded the entire team, but especially Juan Soto, the type of honeymoon period never granted to New York sports teams and, in particular, big-ticket additions.
Alas, after a three-game Subway Series loss to the Yankees and Monday night’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Red Sox, the honeymoon is over — not because the Mets are losing and have fallen out of first place in the NL East for the first time in more than a month but, to borrow one of Sandy Alderson’s favored phrases, the optics of how they are losing and falling out of first place.
The cracks that were beginning to appear have grown magnified over the last four games, during which the Mets have scored just eight runs while batting .152 (5-of-33) with runners in scoring position. Overall this season, the Mets have scored four runs or fewer 26 times in 48 games and are hitting .218 with runners in scoring position — leaving them in a virtual tie for 25th with the Rangers and ahead of only the Pirates, Rockies, White Sox and Orioles, who have the four worst records in baseball.
Soto’s quiet long weekend beginning with his return to the unfriendly confines of Yankee Stadium — he is 2-for-14 with four walks, three strikeouts, three stolen bases and one Mike Piazza moment Sunday night, when he got out of the way as Jeff McNeil raced home on a wild pitch — is getting a lot of attention. But it also underscored how the Mets need him to start performing like the Soto of old now that most of the lineup has either begun to cool off or has yet to begin heating up.
Francisco Lindor is hitting .229 with three homers and a .704 OPS this month after hitting .308 with six homers and an .872 OPS through Apr. 30. Pete Alonso is batting .170 with no homers, three walks and 21 strikeouts in his last 47 at-bats after opening with a .349 average with nine homers in his first 129 at-bats. Luisangel Acuna, who won the NL Rookie of the Month in March/April is hitting .205 with one extra-base hit and three steals in 14 games in May. Lindor, Alonso and Soto are the only Mets regulars with an OPS north of 100.
The bigger concern for the Mets is their defense, which was an issue even before it likely cost them Sunday’s game. Last Wednesday, with the Mets having just won six of eight, president of baseball operations David Stearns said “…I think we could play better defense.”
The only players on the active roster who are above average per Total Zone are Tyrone Taylor (six runs above average), Luis Torrens (one run above average) and, surprisingly, Soto (one run above average). Overall this season, the Mets are eight runs below average defensively, per Total Zone. They finished last season one run above average.
Lindor, a two-time Gold Glove winner and a one-time Platinum Glove winner who has earned at least 1.0 in defensive WAR per Baseball-Reference in eight of his 10 seasons, has a defensive WAR of -0.2. A la Rey Ordonez, he’s alternated making terrific plays with flubbing routine ones.
On Sunday night, third baseman Mark Vientos bobbled a leadoff grounder by Paul Goldschmidt to spark a two-run first inning for the Yankees. In the eighth, Alonso evoked memories of Lucas Duda in the 2015 World Series by firing wide of home plate trying to throw out the go-ahead run, Jasson Dominguez, on a grounder to first.
Another throwing error by Alonso didn’t cost the Mets a run Monday, but it did deepen the worries about his issues. Keith Hernandez, who knows a thing or two about playing first base, wondered if Alonso has the yips.
The Mets’ issues on both sides of the ball are probably just routine valleys endured over the course of a season — the type of valleys that stand out because there have been so few of them over the last 10 months. Since last July 10, when they moved over .500 for good at 46-45, the Mets have endured just two losing streaks of three games or longer (and none this season).
The track records of the Mets’ veterans suggest they’ll emerge from their slumps soon enough (and if they don’t, well, the White Sox and Rockies visit Citi Field next week). Brett Baty’s emergence as an above-average defender at third might solve two problems at once by sending Vientos to designated hitter most days.
Any hiccups are also amplified by the hyper-competitive state of the NL, where seven teams are on a 90-win pace entering today and the Braves are playing at a .600 clip since their 0-7 start. It’s not hard to envision a scenario in which the Mets are fighting for a postseason berth in the final week of the season in a much different and more desperate fashion than last September.
All of which circles back to Soto, who can single-handedly change the tone surrounding the Mets. Soto’s failure to run out grounders and balls off the Green Monster and his apparent sullenness/defiance the past two days aren’t great looks — and also completely in line with how Mets newcomers and superstars in general act.
The Bobby Bonilla debacle will always hover over the Mets as a worst-case scenario for any big-ticket addition. But every questionable display of body language isn’t a referendum on whether or not he’ll remain with the Mets, a la Piazza in 1998. And Lindor’s emergence as a potential captain four years after the rat vs. raccoon and thumbs down silliness prove players on newly signed long-term deals can overcome foolish mistakes and become franchise mainstays.
Between Alonso, Lindor and Nimmo, plus pitchers like Edwin Diaz, Sean Manaea and David Peterson, there are enough leaders in the Mets clubhouse to shield Soto from team spokesman type duties. And if Soto is miserable and it deepens, it shouldn’t suffocate the room, a la Bryce Harper with the 2018 Nationals.
The patience might be running thinner outside the locker room. Short of a few big moments the next two nights against the Red Sox, Soto may return home Friday to the type of frosty reception his predecessors received much earlier in their Mets tenures. But just because the honeymoon is over doesn’t mean the return to reality has to be rough for the new-era Mets.
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