After Wednesday night’s 7-2 loss mostly driven by poor Mets defense, manager Mickey Callaway pointed out the obvious: “we rely a lot on run prevention.” As in, when we can’t prevent runs, we can’t win games.
“You gotta do one or the other, right?” said Callaway, referring to the Sisyphean task of slotting players that can both hit and defend. “To win a game, you gotta put all your eggs in trying to defend or pitch and trying to keep guys from scoring, or you try and go out and outslug everybody.”
The Mets are in the unhappy midpoint between those two: they’ve put good hitters in awkward defensive positions, wasting their often strong starting pitching.
Dom Smith, who made two errors last night and could have been tagged with a third, Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis are natural infielders with talented bats squeezing into the outfield. Meanwhile, Michael Conforto, who started in center field last night, is best in the corners. Juan Lagares has carried a .177 batting average with his defensive specialist reputation — he gets the start in center field. The Mets make it seem like offense and defense are on opposite ends of a continuum.
After Wednesday night, Fangraphs listed the Mets with -57 Defensive Runs Saved, dead last in the National League. The Amazins have over twice as many defensive runs not-saved as the Pirates (-20 DRS) and Nationals (-27 DRS). They weren’t much better in 2018 when they totaled -77 DRS, second-worst in the NL. 2017 was more of the same: -72, again last in the Senior Circuit.
Callaway is right when he says “If we get somewhere, it’s gonna be because of our pitching.” But good pitching requires some help in the field, and solid pitching backed up by horrendous defense gets you the last few Mets seasons.
DOM AND MCNEILL OFF
Since June 27, Smith has hit .188, clubbing just three home runs over a 19-game stretch. In 64 plate appearances, he’s struck out 19 times. And last night, the first baseman-turned-corner outfielder’s rough stretch crested with two errors in left field during the third inning, contributing to Wednesday night’s Mets 7-2 loss against the Padres. Callaway benched him today, but stressed that the day off was strictly for platoon purposes.
“The reason we’re giving him a day is because there’s a lefty. If there were a righty he’d be back in there,” said the Mets manager, referring to the matchup against Padres southpaw Eric Lauer. “We trust him out there. It was a tough night for him, but he’ll get over it.”
Jeff McNeil is also getting an off day to rest his legs, which Callaway described as “heavy.”
“Those All-Star guys, it takes its toll on you. You don’t get the break that everybody else gets.” Callaway told reporters that McNeil is available to pinch-hit, and shared his hope that he’d “hit a three-run homer” like his fellow All-Star Pete Alonso did on his off day.