They need more than just a centerfielder, though. The positional splits were interesting: Catcher: Mets rank 26th in OPS from this position Second Base: 22nd Third Base: 24th Center Field: 24th Designated Hitter: 12th. Obviously they can't upgrade all of these at once, and it's not as if there's going to be lots of catching upgrades available. But they need to add at least 2 hitters even if the plan is “hope that one of Vientos/Baty/Mauricio/Acuna somehow starts hitting.”
Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Looks like we picked Michigan 2B Mitch Voit The NY Post has already helpfully pointed out that Voit is the player who, in celebration of hitting a three-run triple against USC, pretended to “snort” the third base line as if it were cocaine.
As a team, the Mets rank 8th in the NL in runs scored (14th overall). I'm looking forward to see what moves Stearns makes to fix this, because the current roster isn't good enough for when the playoffs arrive.
I don't know how much I get to second-guess injuries — if the docs/trainers say he's hurt, then I believe them. I get it seems bad to injure your back right after spending 8 weeks rehabbing your oblique. This is to me more an Stearns issue: the team has been short on hitters all year and even more so now.
The remaining name on my list is Bruce Boisclair with 410 games. Innis is not on my list but per BBREF he has 288 games as a Met and none elsewhere which suggests a failure of research. I will investigate this further.
No disagreement that today's game was a teamwide failure of offense. No matter how good Soto, Lindor, and Alonso are, they too will have some bad games. But we must also acknowledge the reality that the Mets are getting no meaningful offense from catcher, third base, and wherever McNeil's not playing (second/left).
Also: we can't keep running out a lineup where 5-9 is a black hole of nothingness with the offense. Gilbert + one of Acuna/Baty/Vientos/Mauricio + a pitching prospect (don't care if it's one of the good ones) to the Twins for Byron Buxton please.
Orioles sat both O'Hearn and Henderson, their two best hitters in this game, so it couldn't have possibly been a surprise that they might be called upon to pinch hit with the Orioles down a run in the 8th and the bottom of their order coming up. And - I'm sure the Mets know this — both of those guys hit left-handed! Peterson was at 90 pitches and he's going to get at least 7 days rest before his next start given the All Star break. So wtf happened?
1. Kranepool, 1853 2. Wright, 1585 3. Nimmo, 1000 4. Pete Alonso, 939 5. Jeff McNeil, 859 6. Rod Hodges, 666 7. Pedro Feliciano, 484 8. 9. Ron Gardenhire, 285 10. Francisco Alvarez, 263 Typo in the above, Alvarez is 10 (not 9)
Brandon is the third Mets player to reach 1000 games without playing for any other team in the majors.* 1. Kranepool, 1853 2. Wright, 1585 3. Nimmo, 1000 Who are #4-10 on this leaderboard? One guess per person, will fill it out between the games today. *Note: Cleon, Mookie, and Jose did all reach 1,000 games with the Mets at the start of their careers…but then left, eliminating them from this list.
The amazing thing is that Diaz, Stanek, Brazoban, Garrett, and until a few days ago, Butto had all been on the roster all year. And the Mets have still somehow used 35 pitchers this year so far.