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Why Are the Mets So Maddeningly Mediocre?

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(Queens, NY) – There’s always blame to go around during a long MLB season. Injuries are a common excuse. Yet every baseball team has guys get hurt every year — especially in the starting rotation.

So what can be said to explain away the mind-numbing mediocrity put on display this season by the New York Mets? As the season cruised into early June, the Mets were near the top of many MLB power ranking lists. There were dreams of a deep playoff run in October. Now? The team’s fans spent much of the past weekend — meant to honor David Wright — booing the current version of the orange and blue.

It’s been one thing after another, but one thing is consistent: this team very rarely, if ever, comes up with the big hit. The lineup has largely scuffled overall — especially the backend, with Tyrone Taylor and his .210 batting average getting everyday at bats — but the situation has grown to epic proportions with runners in scoring position.

 

© Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

 

Ranking all 32 teams, the LA Dodgers have the highest batting average with runners in scoring position (RISP) — at a .289 average. Only two teams have a lower batting average with RISP than the Mets — the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies. That’s almost hard to fathom.

Sure, the injuries to Sean Manaea (who’s returned, but still has an elbow issue), Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning, and earlier Frankie Montas, have only been compounded by a similar number of injuries in the pen. But really, the pitching was never supposed to be this team’s strength.

During the team’s earlier successes, the pitching was the catalyst. It unexpectedly provided a shot in the arm for the club at a time when it seemed like cool, spring weather and a lack of timing was limiting the offense. But now, post the All-Star break, having just dropped 2/3 from the Cincinnati Reds — it’s getting ridiculous.

 

© Brad Penner-Imagn Images

 

Maybe the team will take an honest look in the mirror and ask why it’s continuously failing as a unit in clutch situations. Too often the team takes bad, jumpy, or perhaps lazy at bats in those circumstances.

Last year’s team was Grimace, and OMG, and young players on the rise — this year? It’s a lot of “we promise you we’re really good and we still believe that.” Well, suffice to say — Mets fans want to believe, but their eyes deceive them.

But after all, no team is immune to bad stretches. It feels like the Mets have lost 18 of their last 20 — but they aren’t alone. The crosstown rival Yankees still aren’t firing on all cylinders. And even the behemoth Dodgers have been losing games left and right.

 

© Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images

 

As for the Mets, and their never-clutch offense? Narratives, an momentum, can potentially change. Two to three balls in the gap with runners on ought to do the trick.

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