Lucinda Williams went to Slidell to look for her joy, meaning that the Mets going to Cleveland to look for their offense is not the unlikeliest road trip ever. The good news for Mets fans is that it appears to have happened, as the club has hit seven homers in two games, after delivering just two in their first eight contests. Better late than never.

Since the Mets’ offense is predicated on the long ball, their homer drought led to a tough beginning to the 2016 season. Sure, Michael Conforto got off to a strong start and now Yoenis Cespedes seems to be firing on all cylinders. Still, no one got off to a start to make the league turn their head. No one on the team has gone all Trevor Story, at least not yet.

Cespedes, after going 4-9 with a double and two homers in Cleveland, an outburst which had his OPS jump 230 points, leads the team with an .887 OPS. Among players with at least 20 PA, that total ranks only as the 61st-best mark in the majors. The Orioles and Tigers both have five players on their teams with an OPS of .900 or above. In a related story, Baltimore is 8-3 while Detroit checks in at 7-3.

The Mets are one of five teams to not have a player with a .900 or better OPS here in the early going. Three of those teams are under .500 and somewhat surprisingly two are tied for the lead in the AL Central with 8-3 marks. Let’s look at these teams:

The White Sox have Adam Eaton with an .873 OPS, three other hitters with marks in the .700s and five guys who want us to start talking about a different subject. There are two saving graces for the White Sox so far. On a team level, they are doing very well hitting in the clutch. In Baseball-Reference’s “Late & Close” situations, Chicago has a .939 OPS compared to an AL average mark of .671, good for third in the league. And they also have four starters with an ERA of 2.35 or under.

Our old friends the Royals are led by Eric Hosmer and his .816 OPS. They have four other hitters in the .700s. While the White Sox are 12th in the AL with a .628 OPS, the Royals are middle of the pack with a .691 mark, which ranks eighth in the junior circuit. You might think the Royals are winning because of sequencing but they aren’t particularly good among AL teams with RISP (14th) or Late & Close (10th). Their hitting has had very little to do with their early success. The biggest factor has been the schedule, which has seen them go up against the last place team in the Central (Twins) and the bottom two teams in the West (A’s, Astros) and a two-game split against the Mets.

The Phillies have a solid one-two combo with Odubel Herrera (.850 OPS) and Maikel Franco (.843) but have only two other hitters with a mark in the .700s. They are the worst team in the NL with a 2.58 runs per game average. Philadelphia’s success has been the result of two starters – Vincent Velasquez and Jerad Eickhoff – who’ve allowed just 2 ER in 27 IP and seven games against the Mets and Padres, where they’ve gone 5-2. They’re 0-5 in their other games.

Like the Phillies, the Padres have two batters with OPS marks in the .800s and Yangervis Solarte just misses our cutoff with a 1.036 OPS in 19 PA. But San Diego ranks 29th in the majors with a .615 OPS. And their starters aren’t helping out much, with a 4.79 ERA. The Padres have managed to overcome that combo and post four wins (hey, the Braves only have two) thanks to decent relievers and good offensive timing. Their relievers have an ERA 55 points below league average and rank fifth in the league with a 1.258 WHIP. And with RISP, the Padres rank sixth with an .808 OPS.

Which brings us back to the Mets. New York ranks 12th in the National League in AVG, 11th in OBP and 13th in SLG. And they’re 14th in the league in hitting with RISP and dead last in Late & Close. Meanwhile, their pitching is 4th in ERA and 7th in WHIP. The offense has been dismal and the pitching hasn’t been quite as good as expected, with the exception of Noah Syndergaard.

With the possible exception of Cespedes, no one on the Mets figured to be a top 20 offensive player. The offense was built on having solid players up and down the lineup, with the threat of power from all eight non-pitcher spots in the order. The early offensive struggles were due to not only no one going wild but also multiple players performing massively under expectations.

But you can see things starting to turn around. In addition to Cespedes, other guys are starting to wake up. Curtis Granderson started the season 1-24. He’s 5-17 in his last four games. Neil Walker has hit in five straight games. Asdrubal Cabrera has a .962 OPS in his last four games, after starting with a .524 mark in his first six.

Yes, Travis d’Arnaud and Lucas Duda are both MIA so far, but a lineup can handle two guys not hitting. The problem is when that number hits six, like it was the first week of the season.

It’s my belief that in the long run, the offense is going to be fine. We’ve already seen the hits starting to come and at some point, they’ll actually come with runners on base and in clutch situations, as hard as that may be to believe right now. And if Cespedes wants to pretend it’s August 2015 again, that would be nice, too.

Share this: Email

Facebook

Print

Reddit

Twitter

More

Pinterest

LinkedIn



Tumblr

