Curtis Granderson is not afraid to get his uniform dirty

There was some consternation is certain corners of the media when the Mets made Curtis Granderson their leadoff hitter for the 2015 season. He was starting the second year of a four-year, $60 million contract, and was only three seasons removed from the second of his back-to-back 40 home run, 100 RBI seasons with the Yankees. Granderson led off a fair bit in 2014, but spent most of his time as a middle-of-the-order hitter, a role the Mets certainly had openings for coming into the year.

Flash forward to August and Granderson is having his best season since 2011. The power has come back for sure, but he has also adapted himself well to the leadoff role, doing the little things to help out the team and showing plenty of grit, hustle, and passion—grission, if you will—in the process.

This was on full display in the Mets' July 19 game with the St. Louis Cardinals. It may have been four hours or so into a six-hour game, but Curtis Granderson was still hustling. He led off the thirteenth lacing a ball into left-center field that was cut off by Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham, but Granderson turned on the jets and snuck out a two-base hit.

He came around to score to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, but the Cardinals would tie it up in the bottom of the thirteenth.

Granderson was at it again the very next inning. After drawing a two-out walk, he got a huge jump off Carlos Villanueva and swiped second easily.

Granderson has always posted strong walk rates throughout his career, but in the leadoff role this year he seems to have really taken to grinding out at-bats. The Mets' broadcast team regularly comments on his ability to work his way back from bad counts, and overall he has been 49 percent better than league average with two strikes on him. He is seeing 4.3 pitches per plate appearance, the second highest total of his career, and has walked nearly 12 percent of the time.

He has been getting his uniform dirty in the field as well. Mets fans howled (not unreasonably) at Granderson's defense in right field last season, but he has given them little cause for complaint this year, thanks in part to plays like this.

Granderson isn't the type of player that usually gets plaudits for his grit and hustle, especially at this point in his career when he looks like mostly a three-true-outcomes (home runs, walks, and strikeouts) masher. But Granderson has shown plenty of grission this year as one of the leaders of the Mets offense.

He somehow has also found time to run a pretty awesome instagram account. And that is no false hustle.

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