Mets Player Performance Meter: Position players, April 20-May 3

Is this week’s meter an improvement on The Worst Position Player Meter of All Time from two weeks ago? I suppose, in some ways, yes. Juan Soto is back and he is one of multiple green arrows this week. That said, even though the Mets’ offense is beginning to show signs of life from time to time, injuries are really piling up now on the position player side. Though the Mets aren’t mired in a historic losing streak any longer, they had a homestand against three mediocre to bad teams and only won one of those

series, reaching yet another low point in a season full of low points when they were swept by the Rockies at home last weekend. They rebounded by taking two out of three (and the only loss being an extra-inning heartbreaker) in Anaheim, but I think it is safe to say that the Mets are still not playing even close to preseason expectations.

Player	Last week	This week
Francisco Alvarez, C
Brett Baty, UTIL
Carson Benge, OF
Bo Bichette, 3B
Andy Ibáñez, INF	—
Francisco Lindor, SS
Ronny Mauricio, INF
MJ Melendez, OF
Tommy Pham, OF
Luis Robert Jr., OF
Marcus Semien, 2B
Austin Slater, OF	—
Juan Soto, OF
Tyrone Taylor, OF
Luis Torrens, C
Mark Vientos, 1B/3B

We’ll run through the rash of injuries quickly before getting to the evaluations of the healthy players. Obviously the biggest blow is that Francisco Lindor is missing an extended period of time with a calf strain that is more severe than the one Juan Soto suffered, which is a shame because he had just been heating up with the bat before hitting the IL. He was replaced on the roster with Ronny Mauricio, who was given the opportunity to play shortstop every day and put up just a 47 wRC+ in 28 plate appearances before falling victim to injury as well; he fractured his finger sliding into first base and so now the Mets need to move onto Plan C, which is likely Bo Bichette seeing a lot of time at his natural shortstop position. With the bat, Bichette is finally showing some life, putting up a 105 wRC+ over 52 plate appearances, mostly out of the leadoff spot these days. Bichette leads the team with six RBIs over the past two weeks with his biggest hit of course being the go-ahead bases clearing double he hit in the rubber game against the Twins. Bichette also leads the team in hits (14) and runs scored (8). So though Bichette has not been the Mets’ best hitter over the past two weeks, you could argue he’s been among the most productive, with his prowess for coming through in the clutch beginning to return. Utility infielder Andy Ibáñez recently arrived to help fill out the roster in the face of this latest rash of injuries and is hitless in his first three plate appearances, but does have an RBI. Vidal Bruján is now up with the big league team as well and has yet to appear in a game, but will be represented in the next meter.

Luis Robert Jr. was cruising straight toward a poop emoji, but he has since hit the injured list as well with a herniated disc in his spine. He should miss less time than Lindor and it’s unclear how much the injury was affecting his performance, which had taken a nosedive. So poor was Tommy Pham in filling in as the Mets faced their outfield shortage that he was designated for assignment. He went hitless with a walk and a run scored in six plate appearances before he was let go. The Mets signed Austin Slater to replace Pham and while no player that is out there for the taking in April is going to be a game-changer, unlike Pham, Slater at least looks like he perhaps belongs in the major leagues at the moment. He has already racked up three hits and scored a run in his first nine plate appearances as a Met.

I think that covers the injuries and various roster shuffling. The other unpleasantness that I would like to get out of the way early before turning to more positive signs is addressing the Mets’ catching tandem. Woof. It’s pretty funny that the Mets announced a two-year contract extension for Luis Torrens as he’s in the midst of a second straight poop emoji worthy meter period. Torrens is hitless in his last twelve plate appearances, though he is unleashing excellent throws to nab would-be base stealers as usual. But unlike earlier in the season, Francisco Alvarez has not been that much better, which is a shame because the Mets could really use his bat as a DH option since so many of their position players are hurt. But his bat has not been worth DHing lately. He has put up an abysmal 7 wRC+ over his past 39 plate appearances. He has six hits—four singles and two doubles—in that span and has struck out a whopping eleven times to lead the team. He has scored a run and driven in three runs.

Since returning from his calf injury and dealing with some forearm tightness that made throwing uncomfortable, Juan Soto has been serving as the DH more often of late. He is one of the few bright spots on this meter, having posted a 157 wRC+ in 48 plate appearances over the past two weeks. That is the second-best mark on the team. He is also the only Met besides Bo Bichette to rack up a double-digit hit total, which included two home runs and two doubles. Not surprisingly, Soto also leads the team in walks with nine over this 12-game span.

After a poop emoji in the last meter, Mark Vientos leads the team with a 167 wRC+ over the past 12 games. He also matches Bo Bichette’s six RBIs to lead the team. Vientos is also the only Met besides Soto to hit multiple home runs in the past couple of weeks, both of them coming in yesterday’s victory. We’ve seen Vientos have a hot week this season only the plunge back into the depths, so let’s hope the hot streak sticks this time, especially given the fact that Vientos is still good for at least one mistake in the field nearly every game.

Brett Baty has also turned his poop emoji into a green arrow this week with a more modest, but still solid 135 wRC+ in 40 plate appearances. His six runs scored in the past 12 games are second only to Bichette for the team lead. His eight walks are also the second-most on the team behind Soto and double the amount of the next highest total (Mark Vientos with four walks). Baty’s five RBIs are also one off the team lead shared by Bichette and Vientos.

Carson Benge has seen improvement too; we already saw him make such a fantastic defensive play in yesterday’s game that it caused Gary Cohen to break out an SAT word. On top of that, he pulled himself out of the doldrums with a 103 wRC+ in 36 plate appearances. Of his nine hits, three went for extra bases, including a home run as part of a strong performance in the Mets’ series finale against the Twins. Benge’s six runs scored match Baty for the second-most on the team. He collected four RBIs in total and also walked two times.

Marcus Semien and Tyrone Taylor have been unable to get themselves out of the red with a 22 and a 37 wRC+, respectively. The usual pattern is playing out with Taylor; he is now playing close to every day because of injuries and it has resulted in him being overexposed. Of his six hits in the past two weeks, just one went for extra bases—a home run in Game 1 of last weekend’s doubleheader against the Rockies. That represented Taylor’s only run scored in the past two weeks. Semien has been a bit more productive, but still not great. He collected eight hits, six of which were singles. He scored five runs and drove in two runs. Semien has been swinging the bat a little better just in the past four or five days or so; perhaps he will turn things around soon.

Though he didn’t quite earn a fireball this week, MJ Melendez continues to be useful for the Mets off the bench. In 23 plate appearances, Melendez posted a 146 wRC+. He racked up six hits—four singles, a double, and a home run—over this 12-game span, driving in four runs and scoring two runs. So desperate is the Mets’ situation that Melendez has found himself batting cleanup some games as a result of this performance.