Digging into the Mets' performance with RISP
We focus on what players and teams do with runners in scoring position because it’s a great way to score runs without hitting a home run. Sure, you can hit a homer with RISP and the Mets have hit 16 of their 105 HR in these situations so far this season. But the majority of runs scored comes by other means.
The Mets rank dead last with a .673 OPS with RISP. They’re tied for 27th with 788 PA in this split and last again with 245 runs. The Brewers and Dodgers are tied for the most runs with RISP, each with 366. That means the Mets are running a 121-run deficit. It’s a tough way to try and have a good season.
In their 38 wins, the Mets are 117-368 with RISP, a .318 AVG and a .470 SLG
In their 53 losses, the Mets are 44-308 with RISP, a .143 AVG and a .227 SLG
They could certainly use better production when these scoring opportunities arise. Here’s how the top 13 players for the Mets have done in this split so far:
90 PA, 37 RBIs, .763 OPS – Bo Bichette
81 PA, 17 RBIs, .708 OPS – Marcus Semien
80 PA, 23 RBIs, .688 OPS – Mark Vientos
80 PA, 22 RBIs, .595 OPS – Carson Benge
70 PA, 23 RBIs, .837 OPS – Juan Soto
62 PA, 21 RBIs, .577 OPS – Brett Baty
46 PA, 14 RBIs, .661 OPS – Luis Torrens
44 PA, 9 RBIs, .468 OPS – Francisco Alvarez
34 PA, 8 RBIs, .745 OPS – Jared Young
33 PA, 8 RBIs, .656 OPS – MJ Melendez
31 PA, 13 RBIs, .803 OPS – A.J. Ewing
29 PA, 7 RBIs, .710 OPS – Francisco Lindor
25 PA, 13 RBIs, .780 OPS – Tyrone Taylor
Bichette came to the club with the reputation of being good with runners in scoring position. He doesn’t have the AVG and OPS in this split as he’s had in the past but he has a huge lead in RBIs. People tripped all over themselves earlier this year saying how good Semien was with RISP. They simply neglected his BABIP and lack of RBIs. Semien has three sac flies and at least one hit that drove in two runs. He has 21 hits in the split, meaning he has at least eight hits that did not drive in a run.
Vientos, who no one has any problems criticizing, has one fewer PA than Semien but six more RBIs. Benge has rebounded nicely from a poor start but his numbers with RISP still lag. Soto has the team’s best OPS in this split but it’s nowhere near as good as his overall OPS. Baty doesn’t have a shiny OPS but his hits have been very productive. It feels like Torrens should have even more RBIs than he does here. Ewing hasn’t had a ton of opportunities but he’s performed well when he’s gotten the chance. And the Mets need Lindor to be a lot better than he has been here so far.
In the past two games, the Mets have scored 17 runs, in no small part due to going 9-20 with RISP, with two doubles and a homer. The optimists at the beginning of the year envisioned the club performing much closer to this level of production than the .238 AVG and .359 SLG they’ve had so far in this split.
In no way should this be looked at as – finally! Now we’re clicking and things will turn around immediately. It would be fun if they did but no one should go out and wager on it happening.
Back in 2016, the Mets were having incredibly poor results with RISP, hanging out with the expansion 1969 Padres for the worst production in the past 50 years. But they turned it on the last six weeks of the season, which allowed them to clinch a Wild Card spot. Again, no one should anticipate the Mets going crazy in this split the rest of the way.
Yet here’s hoping for a few more performances like the past two games going forward. It’ll make the season a little easier to take if the team can eliminate those seven times they failed to get a single hit with runners in scoring position that happened in the past 16 games.