For the New York Mets to truly hit that next level, they’ll need the offense to transform from lethal in spurts to consistently dangerous.
The level of overall talent residing in Flushing this season — on both sides of the chalk — has that goal well within reach. Unfortunately, over the first half of the season, the bats just haven’t matched the production of the Mets’ pitching staff.
That will happen with over two dozen players on the injured list, including a handful of extremely integral cogs on the shelf. As these things have a way of doing, that tide has begun to turn as the injured return to action.
In July alone, the Mets roster has shown crystal-clear signs of coming together — “connecting at-bats” as manager Luis Rojas likes to put it — and the results are… getting there.
The Mets’ 50 runs scored over 10 games this month is already nearly halfway to their run total through all of June (105 runs in 30 games). That’s an entirely relieving development.
That’s not to say this lineup couldn’t use another big bat as the trade deadline approaches. Kris Bryant would put this offense over the top, but that's another story for another day (over the All-Star break, wink wink).
The Metropolitans’ roster slowly returning to full health at the same time the offense is picking up is no coincidence, of course. The Bench Mob carried this group here. Now it’s the big dogs’ turn to eat (hey, Todd Frazier!).
Dominic Smith (172 wRC+ this month), Francisco Lindor (146), Brandon Nimmo (131), and Pete Alonso (six homers in his last 13 games) are looking like themselves again. Nimmo is just the quintessential table-setter. My goodness.
Michael Conforto hasn’t quite found his rhythm since returning from the IL on June 23 (3-for-42 after his two-hit game versus Atlanta the night he returned; 56 wRC+), but Jeff McNeil sure is coming around.
Over 37 plate appearances last month after returning to the lineup on June 21, the scratch golfer-turned-baseball player hit just .206/.270/.206. Timing at the plate isn’t a switch to be flipped, but yea, that wasn’t gonna do.
In July, McNeil’s been finding grass like he’s at Club Paradise. After a hit in the Mets’ Game 1 loss to the Pirates on Saturday and a two-hit effort in their Game 2 win, the 29-year-old is hitting .357/.419/.393 over 31 plate appearances this month.
McNeil spoke on Saturday following his first extra-base hit since returning from the IL in Game 2, noting that the ball’s been coming off his bat nicely as of late, which usually leads to good things.
“I feel good,” he said. “Getting a lot of singles and hits, you know, just need to start driving the ball a little bit more. But that’ll come with squaring the ball up, which I feel like I’ve been doing.”
As we talked about here this week while discussing Conforto’s struggles to find his groove, both he and McNeil have been hitting the ball hard (hard-hit percentages well above career averages). It was just a matter of time before they started falling in.
“He’s getting there,” Rojas said of McNeil after the Mets’ Game 2 win. “We all know how good of a hitter Jeff is. He hasn’t been consistent yet, but you can see when he starts getting hot and I think he’s looking just like that.”
“I mean, this guy is a natural hitter, and right now he’s not thinking about anything he’s just going in there, finding his pitch, and swinging,” he said. “He’s been more disciplined. I think that’s what led to him to be swinging like he’s swinging and getting to square up some more balls.”
Just like Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil’s importance to this ballclub can’t be understated. The same could be said for each and every guy on the roster, to be honest.
If all the pistons are firing, this team is a bonafide force. And it’s starting to show.
After splitting two at Citi Field against Pittsburgh on Saturday, the Mets close out the first half of the season with a 1:10 PM matinee on Sunday. As of 8:45 AM, Rojas had not named a starter. Fun!
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