☀️ GOOD MORNING:
Two months into the season, we have seen two different Mets teams in the win/loss column: one, that defied even the rosiest of expectations by winning 18 of the first 25 games; the other, a sobering 11–12 over the past 23.
It adds up to a second-place team for the first time since early April.
On a quintessential chilly, spring night in Fenway, the top of Carlos Mendoza’s order remained chilled. The star-studded trio of Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso have combined to hit .184 (18-for-98) with one home run and only seven runs batted in over the past 10 days.
RIP RISP: The lineup, as a whole, refuses to get a hit with runners in scoring position, a theme that has persisted throughout the season. After a 1-for-8 performance on Monday, the team is hitting just .208 with runners on second and third, the fourth lowest average in baseball.
🔻 The incredible vibes that carried this organization deep into the playoffs last October have suddenly skipped a beat. The Amazins have lost four of their last five, and their brightest superstar is getting attention for all of the wrong reasons.
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
🙄 THE DISCOURSE
The Mets were never going to escape this past weekend without Juan Soto becoming a topic of barstool debate. That’s completely fair, as he returned to Yankee Stadium for the first time since spurning the Bombers to join the Mets. The problem is where the conversation has turned.
🐢 SLOW START: Before we get into the nonsense, let’s discuss what is real. The Mets’ $765+ million signing is not playing up to his typical standard of greatness. Yes, he’s still batting 32% above league average; yes, his .815 OPS is among the top 50 in baseball; yes, he will eventually come out of this.
That doesn’t mean fans can’t be disappointed in his start. If you look at the numbers, Soto is always going to look pretty good. If you have watched him play on a nightly basis, you know he has been far from a dangerous hitter, and even farther from being valuable in other aspects of the game.
Not making a difference: Hockey analysts will often comment whether they “noticed” a player on the ice; it’s a way of saying whether a player was making an impact during their shifts, whether they were creating offensive chances, forechecking or winning puck battles. If Soto was a hockey player, you wouldn’t notice him on the ice. He is still drawing walks, but rarely doing other things that make you realize why he was paid more than any other player in the sport.
🥸 HUSTLE? To make matters worse, Soto has failed to hustle out of the box on back-to-back nights. On Sunday, it was a ground ball to the right side that DJ LeMahieu fielded from his knees and could have possibly turned into an infield hit in a 2–2 game in the eighth. On Monday, it was a fly ball that Soto thought had enough air to clear the Green Monster, but it bounced off the wall and turned into a long-hit single (Soto would later steal second).
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