Coming into the regular season, it was perceived that Kirk Nieuwenhuis and John Mayberry Jr. would serve as quality depth off the bench.
It actually stood to reason. Last year, Nieuwenhuis went 8-for-28 with five doubles as a pinch hitter, hitting .259 with an .828 OPS in 130 plate appearances spread across 61 games.
Mayberry was even better as a pinch hitter in 2014 with the Blue Jays. He went 12-for-30 with four doubles and four home runs in that role, and hit .417 with a 1.364 in 44 games as a substitute player in 2014.
The idea was Nieuwenhuis would be a primary bat off the bench against right-handers, Mayberry against left-handers. However, none of that has translated into any success in those roles for either player this season.
Mayberry did drive in a run against Travis Wood on Thursday, but that was his first RBI against a left-hander this season, and he is just 3-for-25 with a triple and a home run against southpaws in 2015. He is 0-for-4 with three walks and a strikeout as a pinch hitter, and 4-for-29 when he starts games.
Nieuwenhuis has been even worse against right-handers – he is only 3-for-31 with two doubles and 12 strikeouts against them. As a pinch hitter, Nieuwenhuis is 0-for-10 with six strikeouts, and is 3-for-21 with seven strikeouts when he starts games.
The overall body of work is eye popping. Mayberry and Nieuwenhuis are a combined 7-for-67 with four extra-base hits, five walks and 24 strikeouts in 72 plate appearances this season.
They just haven’t worked out to this point in the season. It’s as simple as that. The problem is, given they’re Terry Collins’ primary weapons on the bench, it leaves him very, very thin off the bench if they’re not producing. There’s really nobody else they can turn to, either. They could presumably turn to the versatile Daniel Muno, who’s a switch hitter and gets on base a lot, but he isn’t an outfielder. They could bring Eric Campbell back to serve as a super utility guy and a right-handed bat off the bench, but he is really meant to extend a bench, not be a daily weapon off of it.
In fairness, these are pretty small samples, and given the dearth of alternatives, they really might not have any choice but to ride this out a little longer. The two of them can only go up from here, and certainly Mayberry took a necessary step in that direction yesterday.
Just Mets 