Mets Player Performance Meter: Position players, September 9-15

This week’s Mets story arc is another of exhilarating highs and crushing lows—thus has been the 2019 Mets season. With the Mets and Diamondbacks both in the thick of the NL Wild Card race, they began the week facing off against each other. The Mets accomplished a four-game sweep of the Diamondbacks, winning the final two games in lopsided fashion. They beat back one of the other contenders and effectively knocked them out of the race. But then the Mets ran headfirst into the Dodgers (while the Cubs faced the lowly Pirates) and lost two out of three games, with the loss of the rubber game being particularly demoralizing, albeit somewhat predictable. Even though there is now just one team between the Mets and the Cubs, they stand four games back of the second Wild Card with 13 games to go. The odds are improbable and the Mets are running out of time. They will need the parts of the offense that are clicking to continue to click and they will need their big bats who are slumping—Pete Alonso, in particular—to get hot again. The only saving grace is that the Mets have now hit an easier stretch of their schedule and can perhaps surge one last time at the finish.

Since I mentioned Pete Alonso, we’ll get some of the bad news out of the way first. The Mets’ big slugger did not have a good week at the plate, even as others around him were mashing. In fact, from a batting average perspective, it was perhaps his worst week of the season. He had just two hits this week, good for a .087 batting average over 26 plate appearances. However, both of those hits were home runs and he also walked three times, so that salvages his wRC+ to a still awful, but not as bad as you would imagine mark of 41. As the Mets chase dimming hopes of a Wild Card berth and Alonso chases the record books, his bat has gotten cold at the wrong time. The Mets desperately need him to snap out of it during the final stretch.

That said, there is good news. Both Brandon Nimmo and Robinson Cano have stayed hot since coming off the injured list. Cano leads the Mets in hits this week with seven. He drove in just one run this week on his solo homer, but he also walked three times and scored four runs, good for a 176 wRC+ for the week over 22 plate appearances.

Brandon Nimmo got plenty of rest this week with the Mets having faced a few lefties, but when he was in the lineup, he did what he does best: get on base. He posted a .438 on-base percentage for the week, thanks to his three hits and three walks in 16 plate appearances. He hit one home run, drove in three runs, and scored two runs, putting up a 171 wRC+ for the week.

However, it is neither Nimmo nor Cano that leads the team in wRC+ this week. That honor belongs to Todd Frazier, whose three home runs this week propelled him to a 295 wRC+ over 17 plate appearances this week. Unsurprisingly, he also leads the team in RBIs as a result with seven. He also walked once and scored four runs. He posted 0.5 fWAR this week alone.

Right behind Frazier for the team lead in RBIs is Juan Lagares, who had himself a banner game on Thursday. He hit just .214 for the week, but put up a 129 wRC+ thanks to his two home runs on Thursday, one of which was a grand slam—the first of his career. Those two home runs account for all six of his RBIs for the week and two of his three hits.

In the midst of the Syndergaard “controversy,” Wilson Ramos’ bat has cooled off significantly. He put up just a .143/.217/.190 slash line this week over 23 plate appearances. He collected just three hits and one extra base hit. He walked once, scored one run, and drove in one run. In a time when the chief argument for keeping Ramos in the lineup for Syndergaard’s starts is his bat, he hasn’t done himself many favors this week. That said, hopefully it’s a temporary downturn for the Buffalo.

With the Mets in playoff push mode, Ramos has played nearly every day, which means Tomas Nido and Rene Rivera have not seen much playing time. Rivera appeared in just one game this week and did not have a plate appearance in that game. Tomas Nido had four plate appearances over two games and hit a solo homer in Thursday’s barrage of the Diamondbacks, which was his only hit for the week.

J.D. Davis continues to make himself an indispensable part of the Mets’ lineup, especially against left-handed pitching. Davis posted a 131 wRC+ this week over 20 plate appearances. He collected six hits—two of them for extra bases, including one monster home run off Clayton Kershaw—scored four runs, and drove in three runs. It remains obvious that Davis is not a natural left fielder (or a natural defender really anywhere), but his offensive contributions have outweighed his liability on defense.

Like Nimmo, Michael Conforto got a couple of days off this week because of the preponderance of left-handed pitching the Mets were facing. Overall, he had a solid, but unspectacular week at the plate. He put up a 119 wRC+ over 20 plate appearances this week. He had four hits, one home run, three walks, four runs scored, and one RBI for the week in total.

Both Amed Rosario and Jeff McNeil had so-so weeks at the plate. Since the return of McNeil and Nimmo to the lineup, Rosario has moved around in the order, but maintained his high on-base percentage. He has been noticeably more patient at the plate this year and that has paid dividends for the young shortstop. He had six hits—five of them singles—and three walks in 26 plate appearances this week, good for an 83 wRC+. He scored three runs and knocked in two this week.

Jeff McNeil flexed an usual amount of power this week, hitting two home runs. However, he hit just .174 this week, an absurdly low mark for him even in a small sample. All of that evens out to 93 wRC+ for the week. He walked once, scored three runs, and drove in three runs this week. Like Alonso, the Mets are going to need more from McNeil down the stretch to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Rajai Davis had one hit in three plate appearances this week, but of course that one hit was a crucial one. With the bases loaded in a scoreless game in the eighth on Saturday night, Davis came up as a pinch hitter and laced a bases-clearing double down the left field line to put the Mets ahead 3-0, where they would stay. Davis appeared in five games total this week, mostly being utilized as a defensive replacement and pinch runner.

Sam Haggerty is serving as the designated pinch runner. He appeared in three games this week with only one plate appearance, in which he did not reach base. He scored one run across his pinch running appearances.

Mickey Callway has indicated that Jed Lowrie will likely not make a start this season, which means he has been relegated mostly to pinch hitting duty. He did not reach base in his one plate appearance this week.

Joe Panik filled in admirably when Robinson Cano was on the injured list, but now that the Mets have gotten healthy, Panik has seen his playing time decline considerably. He had three plate appearances across four games this week, in which went hitless, but drew one walk. Similarly, Luis Guillorme is mostly a late-inning defensive replacement at this stage. He had one hit—a single—in three plate appearances this week.