Mets Player Performance Meter: Position players, September 4-10

The Mets had two days off this week, so they only played five games, splitting a two-game series with the Nationals and then dropping two out of three to the first place Twins over the weekend. With the exception of Tuesday’s victory in which the bats sounded off against Patrick Corbin and the Nationals, the offense was rather quiet this week. There isn’t a whole lot of in between on this meter; the news is either good or it’s bad. That said, the samples are even smaller than usual.

The bright spot on this week’s meter has to be Francisco Alvarez, who finally broke out on Tuesday, going 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs, three runs scored, and a stolen base. His three-run homer is what set the tone for the game and got the Mets out to an early big lead. Alvarez desperately needed a day like that after his prolonged slump. And it buoyed him to a 239 wRC+ for the week in 12 plate appearances.

Unfortunately, despite Tuesday being a huge day for the Baby Mets in the first game they all played together, none of the other Baby Mets have good numbers overall for the week. The ugliest stat line is that of Brett Baty, who had just two hits—both singles—in 18 plate appearances and struck out a whopping six times. His -45 wRC+ for the week is the worst mark on the team. He has not looked good at the plate since returning from Triple-A, but he did make a great defensive play to end Tuesday’s game.

After an excellent week last week, Mark Vientos has scuffled to the tune of a 53 wRC+ for the week in 16 plate appearances. He had a good series in DC, notching an RBI triple in the third inning of Tuesday’s game and driving in a run on a single in Wednesday’s game. But he then went hitless over the weekend in the Twins series, but he did reach base twice this week via hit by pitches. Much like Baty, strikeouts were a problem this week for Vientos; he whiffed seven times in the four games in which he appeared.

We’ll finish out our weekly Baby Mets roundup with Ronny Mauricio, who has hit his first skid since coming up. In 19 plate appearances this week, Mauricio posted a 39 wRC+. He did collect four hits, which is the most of the Baby Mets contingent, but none of those hits went for extra bases. He walked once, drove in a run, and stole a base this week.

DJ Stewart missed a little bit of time this week due to minor injuries to his back and side, but of course he was the hero in yesterday’s game. After striking out three times against Pablo López, he came through in the ninth inning with a go-head RBI double that turned out to be the difference in the game. It was one of only two hits for Stewart in eight plate appearances this week, but it was a big one; the other was a solo homer in Saturday’s game.

Stewart got his chance to come through in the ninth inning yesterday in the first place because Francisco Lindor ran hard after popping a ball in the air that ended up dropping in front of a diving Matt Wallner for a double. Lindor is the team leader in both RBIs (4) and hits (7) this week with a 168 wRC+ for the week. Of his seven hits, four of them went for extra bases, including one of the five home runs the Mets hit on Tuesday. Lindor’s quest for a 30-30 season continues and he currently stands at 26-26, having also stolen a base this week.

Brandon Nimmo put up a 153 wRC+ this week, continuing his good streak from last week. He is second to Lindor for the team lead in hits with six and leads the team in runs scored with five. His power surge continues with a whopping three home runs this week, which represent his three RBIs; two of those long balls came in Tuesday’s raucous victory. His 23 home runs this season are already a career high by a significant margin.

The only player besides Nimmo to go deep multiple times this week is Pete Alonso—no surprise there. He hit a no-doubter in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game to join the long ball party that night and also hit a solo shot in the eighth inning of Saturday’s game along with DJ Stewart to bring the Mets closer. Overall, Alonso posted a 150 wRC+ in 21 plate appearances this week. He was the team leader in walks with four and was also intentionally walked twice and hit by a pitch once, boosting his on-base percentage to .381 despite a .200 batting average for the week. He scored three runs and drove in three runs this week.

Since turning his season around in a big way recently, Jeff McNeil has hit his first cold spell in awhile, putting up an ugly -4 wRC+ in 21 plate appearances. He collected just two hits this week—both singles. He scored two runs, walked once, and did not drive in any runs this week. But it is worth mentioning that one of those runs scored was the second run driven in by DJ Stewart’s big RBI double yesterday, which McNeil helped set up by getting hit by a pitch. And he has been playing really well in the outfield. Hopefully this is just a tiny step back for McNeil in an otherwise strong second half.

Daniel Vogelbach had just four plate appearances this week, appearing only in Saturday’s game. But he reached base in half his plate appearances, hitting an RBI single in the first inning that put the Mets up 2-0 at the time and drawing a one-out walk in the sixth inning.

Other than that, there isn’t much to report regarding the Mets’ bench players. Jonathan Araúz did not record a plate appearance this week. Tim Locastro had one hit (a single) in six plate appearances and Rafael Ortega went hitless in five plate appearances. Omar Narváez had just one hit (a single) in seven plate appearances, but had a very good day behind the plate in Saturday’s game, in which he caught a runner stealing and picked a runner off third base.