The season got off to a pretty good start for the Mets. They took two of three before sweeping the Marlins and were 9-4 and in first place at one point. Even after some stumbles, they were a perfectly respectable 13-10 with a one-game lead after a win on April 23.
As things stand, they are heading home after a 1-5 road trip. They have a day off to lick their proverbial wounds, but that alone won't be fixing anything.
They need to learn how to hit again.
The offense was riding high early. Through that 9-4 start, the Mets were hitting .263/.354/.444 while averaging 6.2 runs per game. That's juggernaut level, especially on the runs per game front. No wonder they were winning games.
The rest of the month, the Mets hit .255/.336/.397 with 4.2 runs per game. The team went 6-10.
Now onto May and things look to have completely fallen apart.
The Mets' runs scored per game in May: 0, 1, 1, 3, 2, 0, 7, 2
For context, the second one there was when the Mets' won 1-0 on a Noah Syndergaard shutout and he also hit a solo home run. The game where they scored three went into 18 innings. And, yes, that seven-run barrage was good! It was the outlier of the month to this point.
In May, the Mets are hitting .193/.238/.298 with 94 strikeouts. They are averaging seven hits, two walks, two runs and 12 strikeouts per game.
The slumps:
Rookie sensation Pete Alonso had a big game in the 7-6 win Tuesday, but he's still hitting .194/.211/.361 in his last nine games. Robinson Cano is 6 for his last 35 (.171) with 11 strikeouts.J.D. Davis is 1 for his last 11 with four strikeouts. Juan Lagares is 2 for his last 23 with eight strikeouts. Michael Conforto is hitting .140/.321/.186 since April 23. Brandon Nimmo has been bad most of the year, but it looked like he was turning it around before another slump. He's now 2 for his last 30, though both of those hits were doubles and came in the last two games (one in each).Meantime, catcher Wilson Ramos has been bad all season and Todd Frazier is a brutal .143/.160/.265 with 17 strikeouts and zero walks in 50 plate appearances.
At least I didn't mention Jeff McNeil, who has been excellent, or Amed Rosario. So there's that.
Still, nearly the whole team being in a slump is obviously a problem.
Even after that torrid start, the Mets now sit eighth in the NL in average, eighth in on-base percentage and 11th in slugging. At 4.46 runs per game they've fallen below the league average.
It's only May 9, so there's time to turn it around, but I'll gently mention the slugging percentage lag here. Only the Reds, Pirates, Giants and Marlins have a worse slugging percentage than the Mets.
I can't help but look back to the second half of last year, when the Cubs completely fell apart on offense -- notably in the power department -- under hitting coach Chili Davis. The Cubs are second in the NL in slugging now, .001 behind the Dodgers. Then go back to the 2017 Red Sox, who ranked 14th in the AL in slugging under Chili Davis. Without him in 2018, they led in it. Sure, they added J.D. Martinez, but that wasn't all J.D. Most hitting coaches these days concentrate on power and launch angle whereas Chili Davis is a lot more "old school" (see nypost.com from January).
As I said, it's early, so I'm not going to blame these last few weeks on a hitting coach. The players need to produce and many veterans simply aren't producing.
I am saying if this trend holds throughout the year with both the Cubs and the Mets, it's hard to see Mr. Davis getting another job as a hitting coach.
The bottom line is the Mets aren't going anywhere unless the offense starts going. They'll have a good chance to start this coming weekend when the Marlins come to town. Maybe that and the day off Thursday is all it will take, the Mets will have a huge series with the bats and it will snowball into a big offensive year. It's possible. It would be ignorant to claim it can't happen.
It's just hard to be 100 percent confident in that happening right now.
