Folks, you may want to avert your eyes for this one. This week’s position player meter is ugly, possibly the ugliest since I’ve started doing these weekly meters, which includes June of last season when the Mets couldn’t buy a run. The Mets went 2-5 this week, splitting a four-game series with the Reds and getting swept by the Brewers. The offense posted a 47 wRC+ as a team this week, the worst in baseball, tied with the Miami Marlins. The only players with a wRC+ above 80 this week are Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil, and Amed Rosario. Three players have a wRC+ for the week that is a negative number. Brandon Nimmo went without a hit entirely for the whole week. Pete Alonso had his first poor week. Overall, the offense completely fell off a cliff this week and we can only hope these trends do not continue.
We’ll start with the few bright spots this week, which aren’t even all that bright. No one is tearing the cover off the ball, but Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil did just fine this week. McNeil continued to look like Jeff McNeil. He slashed .327/.387/.393, good for a 112 wRC+. He was tied for the team lead in hits for the week with nine. He walked three times and drove in two runs.
Although Michael Conforto still isn’t hitting for very much power, he is collecting his base hits and drawing plenty of walks. He leads the team in walks this week with four. He had six hits in 28 plate appearances this week, scoring a run and driving in a run. He holds a 116 wRC+ for the week, which leads the team.
The other player tied for the team lead in base hits this week is Amed Rosario, who is looking quite good at the plate. His stats for the week are nearly identical to Jeff McNeil—a .321 batting average with a 111 wRC+. He also stole two bases this week. But he gets awarded the side arrow because his play in the field unfortunately continues to be downright unsightly. He has now committed nine errors in his past fifteen games.
Things only get uglier from here. One of the other offensive constants for the Mets besides Conforto and McNeil was always Pete Alonso, who was awarded the NL Rookie of the Month for his torrid April. Unfortunately this week he had his first poor week at the plate overall, despite the game-tying home run he hit that ultimately sent Saturday night’s game into extra innings. Alonso slashed .185/.233/.296 for the week with a paltry 44 wRC+. He does, however, lead the team in RBIs this week with three, which says a lot more about the team as a whole than it says about Alonso.
After heating up in a big way last week, Robinson Cano had a poor offensive week this week, returning to the lineup after being hit in the hand by a pitch. He had just two hits and a walk in 19 plate appearances, scoring a run and striking out 36.8% of the time. He posted a -10 wRC+ for the week.
Unfortunately, Cano is not the only Met whose wRC+ is a negative number this week. That infamous label also exists for both Brandon Nimmo and Todd Frazier. Frazier hasn’t had much to cheer about since his grand slam against the Phillies. He has just one hit this week—a solo home run in Tuesday’s walk-off win against the Reds. That’s good for a -45 wRC+ for the week.
That’s one more hit than Brandon Nimmo had this week, however. Nimmo, who continues to look very lost at the plate, went hitless in 27 plate appearances this week. He did draw three walks this week, which is second only to Conforto for the team lead. His wRC+ for the week stands at an atrocious -39.
Wilson Ramos’ slump at the plate continues as well. He put up a 40 wRC+ for the week, collecting four hits in 22 plate appearances. He walked once, scored two runs, and drove in two runs.
In his first full week as the backup catcher after Travis d’Arnaud’s departure, Tomas Nido looked very much like Tomas Nido. He had one hit—an RBI single in yesterday’s game—in seven plate appearances this week.
Looking to the Mets’ bench, things don’t look any prettier than they do for the regulars in the lineup. The only bench bat who performed somewhat adequately this week was Juan Lagares, who belted a home run and scored three runs this week in his 14 plate appearances, while continuing the play good defense. He posted a 77 wRC+ for the week.
J.D. Davis, who had been tearing the cover off the ball in the month of April, had a down week at the plate this week. His playing time has been significantly reduced by the return of Todd Frazier and will likely suffer even further when Jed Lowrie returns, although Frazier is hitting himself onto the bench very quickly at this rate. Davis had two hits and a run scored in his eleven plate appearances this week, good for a 19 wRC+. He also struck out in over half of his at-bats this week.
Keon Broxton had one hit—a double in yesterday’s game in which he would come around to score—in his five plate appearances off the bench this week.
The Mets’ only personnel move on the position player side this week, albeit a somewhat controversial one, was calling up Adeiny Hechavarria for Dominic Smith. Smith, who had been doing well at the plate, went hitless in five plate appearances this week before being sent down. Hechavarria has had two hits in his seven plate appearances so far as a Met. He also stole a base and scored a run—the go-ahead run in the top of the eighteenth inning in Saturday night’s marathon that unfortunately did not prove to be the winning run.