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Mets Player Performance Meter: Position players, April 23-29

A quick review of how the Mets’ position players fared over the past week.

MLB: New York Mets at San Diego Padres Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

What had been looking like a rather anemic offense at times so far this season came to life last night against the Padres in a much-needed lopsided victory, which may be inflating some players’ numbers this week. However, a couple of regulars have heated up in a big way this week, while some of the previously hot bench players have cooled down.

The best news for the offense this week is that Yoenis Cespedes looks like he has come out of his slump, posting a 216 wRC+ on the week with two home runs, four runs scored, and a team-leading seven RBI. Perhaps most encouraging of all is the 25% strikeout rate this week, which is way down from previous weeks. Of course the second Cespedes breaks out, he is banged up, but hopefully his finger is nothing serious and he returns soon because the Mets need this version of Cespedes in the lineup.

Jay Bruce also seems to have broken out this week, holding a team-leading 221 wRC+ over the last 7 days. He also leads the team in hits this week with nine.

Asdrubal Cabrera looked like he may finally be coming back down to earth a little bit when he went 0-for-6 in Thursday’s extra-inning loss against the Cardinals, leaving five men on base. However, he came right back, blasting a three-run homer in Friday night’s win against the Padres. Overall, Cabrera still put up a very good 151 wRC+ this week, with six hits, four walks, and five RBI.

Todd Frazier, too, had a very solid week this week, posting a 123 wRC+ with six hits, including yesterday’s home run, and four runs scored.

The regular that still seems to be struggling at the plate a little bit is Michael Conforto, who continues to operate by putting up a high on base percentage, but a lower average with very little power. He rocks a solid .400 on-base percentage on the week, but no extra-base hits. In fact, Conforto has just four extra-base hits all season and holds just a .095 ISO, a troubling trend to keep an eye on moving forward.

Tomas Nido and Jose Lobaton seem to be sharing about equal time at the plate these days. Lobaton had the better week of the two, putting up an 84 wRC+ for the week with three hits, a walk, and two RBI. Nido has a rather sad 9 wRC+ this week, but he did have a timely hit in yesterday’s game before the Mets’ bonanza against the Padres bullpen, which drove in a run.

Adrian Gonzalez was having a pretty bad week before yesterday’s five RBI. In fact, he only had one other RBI this week. Even after yesterday, his wRC+ stands at just 68 for the week, prompting some discussion of Jay Bruce playing a couple of games a week at first base.

Amed Rosario is also having a down week. posting just a 26 wRC+ and also making a costly error in the field on Thursday. It is likely that we will continue to see highs and lows from Rosario as he figures it out at the big league level.

Jose Reyes had a good game in Rosario’s stead yesterday, belting his first home run of the year, stealing a base, and scoring three runs.

Reyes seems to be the only bench player to have a good week, though. Wilmer Flores and Juan Lagares both struggled this week and Brandon Nimmo did not have the type of plate appearances we are accustomed to seeing from him. Uncharacteristically, Nimmo struck out five times this week and did not walk a single time. But he did collect three hits, an RBI, and scored two runs.

Wilmer Flores had a poor week at the plate, posting a -48 wRC+. He had no hits in his 15 plate appearances, but he walked twice and scored two runs.

Juan Lagares saw limited playing time this week and had just two hits in his ten plate appearances, good for a 59 wRC+. However, he still is routinely giving us some nice web gems to look at.