Mets Player Performance Meter: Position players, June 26-July 2

After dropping three out of four to the Brewers to bring their dismal June to a dismal close, the Mets finally won a series as the calendar turned to July, taking two out of three from the San Francisco Giants at Citi Field. The Mets offense was mostly shut down during the Brewers series, save for their one victory on Tuesday in which they scored seven runs. The Mets put up a 103 wRC+ as a team this week, much of which was carried by the red hot Tommy Pham and Brandon Nimmo.

We’ll start with Tommy Pham, who pretty much carried the offense this week and had the hottest week of any Met in recent memory, putting up a jaw-dropping 303 wRC+ in 27 plate appearances this week. He racked up 13 hits, which is more than twice as many as anybody else in the lineup. Six of those thirteen hits went for extra bases, including two home runs. Pham went 3-for-3 in Wednesday’s game and then went 3-for-4 on two occasions in the Giants series—once on Friday and once yesterday. In total, he scored six runs and drove in five runs, the latter of which is tied for the team lead. He also stole a base. Put simply, Tommy Pham is the Mets’ best hitter right now. He now carries a 144 wRC+ for the season as we near the All Star Break.

The other Met with five RBIs this week is Brandon Nimmo, who is the other standout performer offensively this week. Nimmo had a power surge this week, blasting four home runs in seven games. Two of those four long balls came in Wednesday’s victory; he also went deep in Thursday’s crushing loss and in Saturday’s victory. Nimmo also scored seven runs this week, leading the team. Overall, he put up a 188 wRC+ over 31 plate appearances.

With Tommy Pham playing a lot more, Mark Canha is playing a lot less. But Canha did well this week when he did play, posting a 148 wRC+ in 14 plate appearances—a stark improvement over last week. Canha collected four hits, including a home run in yesterday’s game, which represents his only run batted in and run scored for the week. Canha was the only Met to steal multiple bases this week, swiping two bags.

This brings us to the elephant in the room: the fact that Canha was not playing, but Starling Marte was playing, despite perhaps his worst week of the season yet. It’s a shame because Marte had been showing small signs of improvement, but he took a step back this week in a big way. The numbers on paper are ugly, to be sure—just four singles, one run scored, one RBI, a stolen base, and an even 0 wRC+ over 22 plate appearances. But what a simple look at the stat line fails to capture is his failure in multiple big spots this week, which put his struggles front and center. This was particularly acute in Thursday’s loss, in which Marte grounded into two double plays, including one with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, and then struck out to end the game on three pitches with the Mets down a run and the bases loaded. It was an unimaginably bad night for Marte that was part of an unimaginably bad week.

We’ll try to balance this bad news with some good news: Jeff McNeil is starting to show signs of life. After being slapped with the dreaded poop emoji last week, McNeil posted a 63 wRC+ in 25 plate appearances this week. That’s nothing to write home about, but his six hits do match Nimmo and Francisco Lindor for second-most on the team and perhaps most importantly, half of those went for extra bases. He also drove in three runs this week McNeil is finally hitting balls hard to the opposite field again, which is a good thing.

Speaking of hitting balls hard, how about that Pete Alonso home run last night? Alonso’s two-run homer in the eighth inning opened up a four-run lead for the Mets—cushion and a sigh of relief they desperately needed. Overall, Alonso posted an 80 wRC+ over 28 plate appearances this week. He collected four hits, walked twice, scored four runs, drove in three runs, and stole a base.

Like McNeil, Francisco Lindor also amassed six hits this week, but because he also walked three times that’s good for a solid 115 wRC+ for the week. Lindor hit two home runs this week—the only Met besides Nimmo and Pham to go deep multiple times. Both games Lindor homered in were wins for the Mets—Tuesday’s game and Saturday’s game. Lindor drove in three runs and scored four runs and continues to play stellar defense at shortstop as always.

Brett Baty’s defense on the other hand, has not been stellar lately. But, he was decent with the bat, putting up a 103 wRC+ in 22 plate appearances this week. He notched five hits, including a home run in Thursday’s game that put the Mets on the board in that contest.

The Mets’ bench has not covered itself in glory this week. Luis Guillorme went hitless over five plate appearances, reaching base one time via a walk. Danny Mendick failed to reach base in his four plate appearances this week. Omar Narváez also went hitless in six plate appearances, but he did collect an RBI on a go-ahead sacrifice fly in Friday’s game.

Francisco Alvarez remains the Mets’ primary catcher, but he has struggled for the second week in a row, putting up a 43 wRC+ in 19 plate appearances this week. That said, he ended his week on a high note, getting the Mets’ big third inning started on Saturday with a solo homer and then scoring the Mets’ first run of the day in yesterday’s game. He had just one other hit besides the home run the rest of the week and also walked twice.

Similarly, Daniel Vogelbach also had just two hits this week with one of them being a home run, which came in Tuesday’s victory. In fact, both of Vogelbach’s hits for the week came in that game in which he went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in and two runs scored. That represents the extent of Vogelbach’s production this week. Unlike Alvarez, he surprisingly didn’t draw any walks this week, so his wRC+ is a dismal-looking 13 for the week.