Just Mets

Data provided by Baseball Prospectus via MLB.com

Right now, the Mets are on the outside looking in on both of their races, and continue to trend downward. That’s mostly due to their 31-39 record over their last 70 games, which is obviously not playoff caliber, and mostly representative of a second-division club.

The disappointing part about this is their pitching staff – top-to-bottom – is not only playoff caliber, it’s championship caliber. If this club somehow sneaks into the tournament, they have an opportunity to make some serious noise as they can out-pitch most anyone in the league. The starters have the sixth-best ERA at 3.45, their bullpen the fifth best with a 2.80 ERA. That’s after messing around with variations of a six-man rotation, inconsistencies and underperformance from Dillon Gee, Jon Niese, Matt Harvey and Bartolo Colon, and a makeshift bullpen thanks to an incredible number of injuries.

Not bad at all.

The problem is, their offense is sub-competitive in the industry. When the pitchers have a higher batting average and slugging percentage than the team’s pinch hitters, that should serve as a startling dose of reality and motivation to improve this offense.

Sandy Alderson has said if the club is going to make a move for offense (and in fairness, they haven’t earned enough credibility to believe they will do that), it will be just one piece. There’s some indication the trade market is beginning to define itself, and the Mets are continuing to shop and find ways to bring a meaningful bat in the inject the lineup.

With the way they pitch, one bat could be what they need to lengthen the lineup. Of course, it would be great if they had a juggernaut offense 1-8 in the lineup, but even a more aggressive team cannot make that happen and transform the entire team ahead of the trade deadline. But the one bat – along with getting Travis d’Arnaud back – could help provide just enough offense to support their stellar pitching and start winning with more consistency again.

But again, will the Mets do that? Skepticism is certainly fair, until it actually happens. And until it happens, they may continue to slide further out of contention as the other teams ahead of them ascend towards postseason positioning.