Mets to meet with MLB exec over hit by pitches and baseball grip issues, sources say
Starling Marte #6 of the New York Mets is hit by a pitch, forcing in a run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth inning at Busch Stadium on April 26, 2022. Credit: Getty Images/Joe Puetz
ST. LOUIS — The Mets are going to get that conversation they have been asking for.
Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations, will meet with at least the Mets’ pitchers and perhaps other players on Friday at Citi Field, people familiar with the plan told Newsday, a result of the club’s furiousness over getting hit by pitches and apparent trouble with gripping baseballs.
That will punctuate an eventful several days that included Pete Alonso getting hit in the head for a second time this month, righthander Chris Bassitt criticizing MLB’s handling of what he called “a very big problem with the baseballs,” general manager Billy Eppler and manager Buck Showalter speaking with Sword on the topic, and the benches clearing between the Mets and Cardinals after J.D. Davis was plunked and Nolan Arenado didn’t like a pitch that came up and in.
Showalter, serving as an understanding but angry middleman between the league and his players who believe the league is being negligent, said MLB is “very sensitive to all the clubs’ thoughts and needs.”
“It's pretty obvious it is an issue,” he said.
Anger in the Mets’ clubhouse reached a new peak this week as they were plunked a most-in-the-majors 19 times in 20 games. At the start of play Thursday, a day off for the Mets, no other team had more than 13. The Pirates hadn’t been hit at all.
The trend seems to have two primary sources, according to those involved: The inconsistent feel and gripability of the baseballs, which negatively affects pitchers’ ability to locate their pitches, as well as other teams frequently and strategically throwing inside to Mets hitters.
The former, mentioned by Showalter as early as the second day of the season, has received most of the attention recently. Alonso, Bassitt and Max Scherzer have attributed the tackiness problem to MLB’s crackdown on pitchers using sticky substances, which began last June out of a fear that it gave them an unfair advantage. Bassitt said “MLB doesn’t give a damn” about the unintended consequences.
This complaint is not universal. Carlos Carrasco, for example, said he hasn’t had any issues holding the ball this year. The Yankees’ Jameson Taillon said he hasn’t experienced it or heard any chatter on the topic.
Catcher James McCann begged the league to “sit down with players and see what players want.”
Now, Sword will. He had been scheduled to visit Citi Field a couple of times already, including the day last week that Showalter was out for a medical procedure, but those were postponed. They rescheduled, a source said, after the goings-on Tuesday night, which included Alonso getting beaned and Bassitt and McCann speaking out.
“MLB is always concerned about keeping hitters safe from dangerous pitches,” an MLB spokesman said. “We closely analyze trends in the game and have active conversations with our players and coaches to address concerns. Through April 26, leaguewide statistics show hit-by-pitch rates and wild pitch rates are down relative to previous seasons. However, one Club has been hit more than twice as often as the league average so far in 2022, which is something we will continue to monitor.”
Showalter suggested MLB made a mistake — a fixable mistake, but a mistake — in not allowing pitchers some universally approved sticky substance of a better quality than rosin.
“I'm worried about one team,” Showalter said. “I'm not worried about the other 29 teams . . . Let’s face it: The problem is that the pitchers went too far one way. And the question is whether we as an industry have gone too far the other way. They’re trying to find a happy medium.”
The baseballs possibility doesn’t account for why Mets hitters specifically have had such a bizarre, statistically aberrational experience. Pitchers across the majors don’t seem to be having these HBP issues. Mets pitchers are in the middle of the pack with just six batters drilled. (The Phillies, whom the Mets face this weekend, have hit the most batters at 15.)
The hit-by-pitch rate this season, according to MLB, is 1.14% — the lowest since 2018. The wild-pitch rate of 0.24% is the lowest in a decade.
That is where the other theory comes in: The book on Mets batters is to throw inside because they don’t hit those pitches well. Showalter said they lead the majors in fastballs inside.
“We’ve got some talented hitters in here,” Davis said. “A lot of analytics, they go by the heat maps and where are our cold spots are. And a lot of our cold spots are up in the zone or up and in.”
Showalter allowed: “That’s how people are pitching us. That’s part of it, too.”
But that means when pitchers mislocate a pitch, it sometimes ends up in the batter’s box, leaving a bruise — which gets back to the grip question, perhaps exacerbated by the chilly April weather.
“It could be scouting reports where it’s like, hey listen, we don’t want to miss over the zone so we miss up and in,” Alonso said. “A bad miss is a bad miss. Big-leaguers that are supposed to be the best in the world at what they do shouldn’t be missing up above guys’ necks. No one should be throwing neck balls.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
