Just Mets

It hasn’t exactly been the start everyone was hoping for when the Mets signed veteran outfielder Michael Cuddyer in the offseason. Brought here to provide leadership and offense, all while bridging the two-year gap with Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto waiting on the other side, it’s been a disappointing six weeks for Cuddyer.

As it stands now, Cuddyer is hitting .253/.319/.363 with five doubles, three home runs, 17 RBI, 13 walks, 36 strikeouts, six ground ball double plays and a .682 OPS. Cutter’s line drive percentage is at 20–similar to his 24.2% last season and 20.2% in 2013–but his ground ball percentage is up as well, from 48.4 percent last year to 55.5 so far this season.

The most concerning thing, I think, is the lack of extra-base hits for Cuddyer, as he has just nine this season, resulting in his .363 slugging percentage, which is the second-lowest among Mets hitters who qualify (only Juan Lagares is lower). He has three home runs this season, less than Wilmer Flores, Lucas Duda, Curtis Granderson and the same amount as Daniel Murphy, who’s never hit more than 12 longballs in a single season.

There is some good news, however.

Over the last few days, it looks as if Cuddyer may be starting to turn things around. In the last seven games, the 36-year-old outfielder has raised his batting average from .233 to .253, going 9-for-26 (.346) with a double, five RBI, three walks and three runs scored.

Cuddyer’s been hitting the ball better lately, as he has a 28.6 line drive percentage and a 47.6 hard contact percentage in this past week. He could have easily had another hit and RBI or two as well, but was robbed by Randal Grichuk with the bases loaded in Wednesday night’s loss to the Cardinals.

There’s no exact science when it comes to getting out of a slump, but over my years watching baseball, I’ve noticed that a lot of times when guys are struggling and suddenly making hard outs, they start to get some of those balls to fall in for hits and before you know it they turn it into a hot streak.

As I’ve shown, Cuddyer has been hitting a lot better in the last week, but he’s been making better contact over the past two weeks–the hits just weren’t falling at first. In the last 14 days, Cuddyer’s line drive percentage is at 28.2, while he’s only hit 12.8 percent of balls for soft contact.

The next step for Cuddyer is to hit for more power, as just one of his nine hits this past week were for extra bases. If the numbers tell us anything, it’s that Cuddyer is trending upward and could be in the early stages of a hot streak, something this Mets team could certainly use.