Mets Player Performance Meter: Position players, June 1-14

The Mets have played exactly .500 baseball in the month of June so far. Juan Soto continues to be the Mets’ most consistent hitter (no surprise there), but Bo Bichette may be finally heating up, as he spends his second straight week in the green. Meanwhile, Mark Vientos’ stock is way down, as he continues to lose more and more of his at-bats to Jared Young. Carson Benge has been excellent of late and this week also saw the return of Francisco Alvarez from a torn meniscus—many weeks ahead of schedule.

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

Mark Vientos continues to struggle so badly that manager Carlos Mendoza recently said he will have to compete for at-bats. And Mendoza has been true to his word. Vientos has played in just 7 of the Mets’ last 12 games and has just one hit in the month of June. Vientos has struck out in seven of his 16 plate appearances. Jared Young has been taking most of Vientos’ at-bats and has been much more productive, posting a 114 wRC+ this month thus far over 46 plate appearances. Half of his ten hits have gone for extra bases, including three home runs, and his seven RBIs are the second-most on the team.

Though his struggles are not quite as pronounced as Vientos’, Brett Baty is trending down as well, posting a 44 wRC+ in the month of June thus far. Baty has just eight hits in his last 42 plate appearances, only one of which went for extra bases. Baty walked three times, drove in three runs, and scored two runs. MJ Melendez has been seeing a bit more playing time as a result and he has held his own with an uninspiring but respectable 99 wRC+ in 32 plate appearances. He has shown some pop; three of his five hits were for extra bases, including a home run. He also drew four walks, which is somehow the second-most on the team over this 12-game stretch.

Bo Bichette leads the team in both RBIs (12) and hits (16) in the past 12 games. His 159 wRC+ for the month of June also leads the team. Of course, the highlight of this hot stretch for Bichette was his huge night in the series opener against the Braves, in which he went deep twice, including an opposite field grand slam against Spencer Strider that put the Mets ahead—ultimately for good. It may be too little too late for the Mets, but if the team is going to turn things around, Bo Bichette finally heating up would be a major reason why.

Juan Soto staying productive would be another major reason why. Though not quite as raging hot as he was at the end of May, Soto still put up a solid 121 wRC+ over 51 plate appearances. He racked up 11 hits, including two home runs and two doubles. He scored five runs and drove in five runs. And as usual, he led the team in walks with seven. Heading into Monday’s series opener in Cinncinati, Soto was up to third in the National League in OPS and had gone over 30 plate appearances without a strikeout.

Carson Benge has settled in to being quite the productive everyday player for the Mets, as his run of good play has gone on for almost two months now. In June, he holds an excellent 137 wRC+ in 51 plate appearances. The Mets outfield trio all had a good couple of weeks; A.J. Ewing put up a 130 wRC+ in 46 plate appearances. Both Mets rookie outfielders had 13 hits apiece—second only behind Bichette for the team lead. Benge’s nine runs scored lead the team. He also walked three times and drove in five runs. Ewing also walked three times. He drove in three runs, scored six runs, and stole three bases—the only Met to swipe multiple bags over the past two weeks.

Francisco Alvarez made a borderline miraculous return from a torn meniscus many weeks ahead of schedule and got off to a quick start, but has cooled off since. Overall, he had three hits including a home run in his first 14 plate appearances since being activated. Meanwhile, Luis Torrens had six hits—half of which went for extra bases—in 27 plate appearances, good for an 89 wRC+. Torrens scored five runs and drove in two runs. When Alvarez was activated, Hayden Senger, who went hitless in two plate appearances, was sent back down to Triple-A.

Marcus Semien hasn’t been what I would call raging hot, but he has at least lifted himself out of awful territory, hovering close to league average with the bat for the past month or so. In June so far, he has an 85 wRC+ in 48 plate appearances. He actually leads the team with four home runs, which represent half of his total hits over this 12-game span. They also represent all four of his runs batted in and four of his five runs scored. Semien also walked three times and stole a base.

As the last men off the bench, Vidal Brújan and Eric Wagaman have not seen many at-bats. Wagaman reached once via a hit by pitch and struck out in his other two plate appearances. Brújan did not reach base in either of his two plate appearances.