Mets know they need to cut down on the walks if they want to remain in the playoff race
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns speaks to the media before a game against the Marlins at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
For all the variables that go into creating a successful baseball team, there’s one aspect that’s deceptively simple: If you put opposing batters on base, there’s a greater probability that the other team will score. And if the other team scores enough, you’re going to lose.
This, at its core, is a key problem facing the Mets as they go into the stretch run of the season. And on Friday afternoon, president of baseball operations David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza were clear in their messages: Their pitchers are walking way, way too many batters, and if the Mets are going to squeak into October, it has to stop. But how to make it stop is a bigger conundrum.
“It’s not one issue,” Stearns said before the Mets, who just lost two of three against the last place A’s and five of their last six, took on the Marlins at Citi Field. “At times, [we’re] trying to be a little too perfect, probably at times, losing track of the situation in the game, and look, at times it’s that 50-50 call that’s not going your way. Regardless of the reasons, we can’t walk that many guys. You can’t consistently win baseball games with that many free passes.”
Entering Friday, Mets pitchers had given up 3.90 walks per nine innings, second-worst in the majors behind the 90-plus loss White Sox. Their starters were dead last in walks per nine (3.73) and only 47.8% of their pitches had been in the strike zone this season, the worst in the National League.
One of the most fastball-reliant teams in baseball, their pitchers nonetheless boast the fourth-lowest swing percentage (46.6%) in the league. Despite this, they’re great at getting weak contact, and their 43.9% ground ball rate ranks fifth in baseball.
The issue, Mendoza said, comes down to trust and execution. David Peterson has been the wildest of the current starters, at 4.31 walks per nine, but the bullpen has struggled plenty, too. Ryne Stanek and Huascar Brazoban, both recent acquisitions, carry unsightly BB/9 rates of 9.00 and 4.91, respectively.
“Some of the guys that we have in the rotation and on the staff, I feel like at times we’re nibbling way too much, not attacking hitters, not trusting your stuff as a pitcher and not letting the defense play,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to get better.”
In addition to clogging the basepaths, the wildness has put a greater onus on starters, who’ve had to work longer and harder to go deeper into games. The rotation has thrown the second-most pitches of any staff in the National League, and numbers like that become concerning when you think about a player like Luis Severino, who has thrown 133 ⅔ innings, his most significant workload in the past six years.
“You’re always concerned about durability, you’re always concerned about whether you have enough depth at starting pitching,” Stearns said. “I think our medical staff, our strength and conditioning staff has done a really good job with these guys. They’re monitored regularly and I haven’t seen anything of concern at this point.”
Mendoza, too, said they’re keeping an eye on it. And while the Mets probably got more from their reclamation projects than some might’ve expected, a sustained swoon could bounce them straight out of the playoff race. They came into Friday two games behind Atlanta for the third wild-card spot.
Walks haven’t been the only issue, either — evidenced by the single run they mustered in last weekend's three-game series in Seattle. They finally started hitting against the A's... only for their pitching to fail them.
“I think we’ve played very inconsistent baseball,” Stearns said. “Yes, the walks have been too much. We went through a stretch where we weren’t getting hits with runners in scoring position...
"I believe in this roster right now. I think we’ve got a roster that works [and is made up] of talented players. We’ve demonstrated that and we know to get to the playoffs, we’re going to have to play better than we’ve done over this recent stretch.”
It’s simple, but difficult. Fewer guys on base equals fewer runs, and fewer runs mean more wins at a time the Mets desperately need them.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
