Mets Player Performance Meter: Position players, May 18-31

The second half of May saw the surging Mets come to a screeching halt, suffering three consecutive series losses to the Nationals, Marlins, and Reds before salvaging the month with a sweep of the Marlins at home to build some momentum as the calendar turned to June. Perhaps most importantly, the offense began to show signs of life; Juan Soto is back to being Juan Soto and the Mets are beginning to see their injured players return with perhaps more reinforcements on the horizon.

Player	Last week	This week
Brett Baty, UTIL
Carson Benge, OF
Bo Bichette, 3B
Vidal Bruján, INF
A.J. Ewing, OF
MJ Melendez, OF
Nick Morabito, OF	—
Marcus Semien, 2B
Hayden Senger, C
Juan Soto, OF
Tyrone Taylor, OF
Luis Torrens, C
Mark Vientos, 1B/3B
Eric Wagaman, 1B/DH	—
Jared Young, 1B/DH

The past two weeks

saw Jared Young return from the injured list and he has hit the ground running, putting up a 143 wRC+ in 16 plate appearances. He’s racked up four runs scored, including a home run, which represents his only RBI in the 13 games he appeared in. He has been an essential bat for the Mets from the left side. Unfortunately, Tyrone Taylor went on the injured list at the same time Young was activated. Prior to the hip flexor injury he suffered in the Reds series, Taylor hit .176 in 19 plate appearances with three hits, a walk, and three runs scored.

Eric Wagaman replaced Taylor on the active roster and his first—and thus far only—hit with the Mets was a loud one: a solo homer in the Mets’ only win against the Reds, which kickstarted their four-game winning streak to close out May. At the same time, Nick Morabito, who had been called up on May 19 to replace Austin Slater on the roster, was optioned back to Triple-A after going hitless in his first 12 big league plate appearances. He reached base just once in his short cup of coffee via a hit by pitch.

Another guy whose stint in the big leagues may be short-lived (even more so than anyone expected) is Hayden Senger because Francisco Alvarez is somehow already beginning a rehab assignment. But Senger got his moment in the sun—his first big league home run in Saturday’s victory, which was one of two hits in nine plate appearances for Senger. When Alvarez returns, Luis Torrens will be relegated back to backup duty, but Torrens has comported himself well in a starting role, putting up an unspectacular but respectable 79 wRC+ in 37 plate appearances. He notched eight hits—six singles and two doubles. He also walked twice, scored three runs, and drove in three runs in this two-week stretch.

Speaking of moments in the sun, MJ Melendez also had his in the form of a walk-off homer in Friday night’s game—the first such home run of his career. He had been slumping heading into that moment, posting just a 63 wRC+ overall over his last 23 plate appearances. But I had to upgrade him to the side arrow for the heroics.

After his red hot start, A.J. Ewing has cooled down significantly to the tune of a 36 wRC+ in 49 plate appearances. He does have 10 hits in that span, but all 10 of them were singles. He scored three runs and drove in three runs and struck out a whopping 19 times, which leads the team. I didn’t have the heart to give him a poop emoji though because he has been fantastic in center field, along with fellow psychopath Carson Benge, who unlike Ewing is in the green for the second meter in a row with a 120 wRC+ in 61 plate appearances. Benge leads the team in hits with 15, four of which went for extra bases, including a home run. Benge scored eight runs and drove in seven runs in a very solid 13-game stretch.

The player who shares the team lead in hits with Benge is Juan Soto, who leads the team in pretty much every offensive category. Runs scored? Yep, 11 of those. Runs batted in? A cool 15 of those. Home runs? Seven of them—more than double anyone else’s total. One of those, of course, was a grand slam in Sunday’s game, the third grand slam of his career. Walks? Mhmm, that too (six of them). I’ve been doing these meters for awhile so I am used to weird small sample size stats, but now that these are biweekly posts, the sample sizes are a little larger and a 269 wRC+ over almost 50 plate appearances sure is something. But it’s something that Juan Soto simply does sometimes. Pretty cool.

Right behind Soto in pretty much every category over this 13-game stretch is Bo Bichette, who has somewhat quietly turned things around with a 121 wRC+ over 56 plate appearances. He racked up 13 hits, including three home runs. He drove in ten runs and walked five times, which is also second only to Soto for the team lead and matches Benge’s total. His nine runs scored are also second only to Soto for the team lead.

Marcus Semien didn’t have quite as good a second half of the month as the first half, but he’s still been far more productive in May than he was in April. Over his last 51 plate appearances, Semien has a 73 wRC+ with ten hits—including two home runs—five runs scored, and seven RBIs. Semien may not be the prolific power hitter he once was, but he is starting to hit the ball with authority a little more often, which is nice to see.

Brett Baty kind of just keeps chugging along in the “fine” category. He’s played solid defense and posted an 86 wRC+ over 43 plate appearances in the past two weeks, which is almost exactly his mark for the whole season. Of Baty’s 9 hits, two went for extra bases, including a home run. Baty scored five runs, drove in six runs, and walked four times. Mark Vientos also notched nine hits in the past two weeks, but unlike Baty, he didn’t draw any walks and had seven more plate appearances, so his wRC+ for this two-week period is a paltry 40. Vientos did log four extra-base hits though, including a very long home run. He scored four runs and drove in four runs.

Vidal Bruján doesn’t play very much, but often finds a way to contribute when he does. His one hit in six plate appearances was a bunt single, but he got thrown out on the base paths, which is sort of indicative of the Vidal Bruján experience. He does play excellent infield defense though. He scored three runs and drove in a run in the five games he appeared in.