Mets Player Performance Meter: Position players, September 18-24

The Mets took two of three from the Marlins but then were swept in a four-game series by the Phillies over the weekend. All of the games in the Phillies series were close games and the offense did enough to win—at least in the first three games—but the Mets were let down by their pitching. Still, the offense didn’t look great this week, putting up an 82 wRC+ as a group over this seven-game stretch. This meter is definitely more feat-or-famine than most meters of the recent past. Both Pete Alonso and Francisco Alvarez are slumping and the Mets have gotten next to no production from their bench this week, but Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil stayed hot.

Unfortunately as he chases another historic home run season, Pete Alonso hit a major slump this week with a ghastly -28 wRC+ in 31 plate appearances. He had just three hits and struck out a whopping fourteen times, which leads the team. He walked twice, drove in three runs, and scored only one run this week. Hard to argue that’s anything other than a poop emoji worthy performance.

Similarly, Francisco Lindor has hit a cold spell at the wrong time too as he pursues a 30-30 season. Lindor did steal four bases this week to reach 30 stolen bases, but he still has three home runs to go with six games left. He did go deep once this week; his solo shot in Friday’s game brought the Mets within a run in the eighth inning. Overall, he collected seven hits, which is the third-most on the team, but all the hits besides the home run were singles—good for a decidedly meh 68 wRC+. He drove in three runs and scored two runs in total.

And Francisco Alvarez too has hit a slump as he seeks to break Johnny Bench’s record of the most home runs hit by a 21-year-old catcher. Like Lindor, he has three home runs to go in the final six games of the season to match Bench’s total. But unfortunately, Alvarez took a big fat 0-fer this week in 14 plate appearances and joins Alonso in the poop emoji club. He’s also been a bit banged up, but all testing has come back with good news.

With the ugliest part out of the way, we’ll turn to the positive side of things: Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo’s heroics this week. McNeil is the team leader in hits (11) and batting average (.393) this week. Of course, it was McNeil’s clutch go-ahead homer that led the Mets to victory to begin the week on Monday and he only kept it going from there. He went 3-for-4 in Tuesday’s victory and had two outfield assists in one game on Wednesday. On Thursday, he went 3-for-4 again and fell a home run shy of a cycle. Meanwhile, Nimmo had back-to-back three-hit days on Tuesday and Wednesday. He is the team leader in wRC+ (213) , RBIs (6), and runs scored (5) this week.

The only other player to earn a positive grade this week is Brett Baty, whose biggest moment of the week by far was a game-tying home run in the ninth inning of Friday’s game that sent the game to extra innings. In fact, Baty is one of only two Mets to hit multiple home runs this week; he also went deep in Wednesday’s victory. Overall, Baty put up a 124 wRC+ for the week, driving in three runs and scoring three runs.

The other Met to hit multiple home runs this week is Mark Vientos, who leads the team with three home runs this week. He hit two of those home runs in Wednesday’s rubber game victory. But those three long balls represented half of Vientos’ hit total for the week in 27 plate appearances, so that evens out to an okay-but-not-great 104 wRC+ for the week. Vientos scored four runs and drove in four runs this week.

Despite matching Nimmo for the team lead in runs scored with five, Ronny Mauricio’s overall numbers for the week are poor. He posted a 47 wRC+ over 31 plate appearances, logging just five hits this week. One of those hits was a two-run homer that got the Mets on the board in Sunday’s loss. Those represented his only runs driven in for the week. He also struck out ten times, second only to the slumping Alonso for the team lead.

The magic of DJ Stewart could not last forever and he is back to being a part-time player. He had a solid week this week, putting up a 103 wRC+ in 15 plate appearances, but it’s impossible to keep up the pace he was on. He collected three hits—all singles—and walked twice this week. He scored two runs and didn’t drive in any runs this week.

Omar Narváez saw his stock go up this week by posting a 109 wRC+ in 14 plate appearances. It’s nothing to write home about, but it beats Alvarez’s week. Narváez collected four hits, one of which was for extra bases, and walked once. Unfortunately he did not score any runs or drive in any runs this week.

Aside from that, the bench did not cover itself in glory this week. Luis Guillorme returned from the injured list and replaced Jonathan Araúz on the roster; he went hitless in three plate appearances this week. Tim Locastro had just one hit—a single—in ten plate appearances and scored a run, but his defense remains solid as ever. Rafael Ortega fared slightly better, collecting two hits and a run scored in eight plate appearances. Daniel Vogelbach had just one plate appearance this week in which he did not reach base.