The choice is clear between Jose Siri and Tyrone Taylor
Thru seven games, it’s been a weird distribution of offense for the Mets. Typically, you’d expect a handful of guys performing at a good clip, several more or less average and the rest under-performing. Instead, we see heavy concentration at either end, with a lack of a middle class. Of the 12 hitters with at least five trips to the plate, not one has a wRC+ between 60 and 130. Here are the numbers:
221 – Pete Alonso
162 – Starling Marte
144 – Juan Soto
136 – Brandon Nimmo
134 – Luis Torrens
58 – Jesse Winker
29 – Francisco Lindor
23 – Luisangel Acuna
(-3) – Jose Siri
(-14) – Mark Vientos
(-19) – Tyrone Taylor
(-44) – Brett Baty
This extreme stratification has resulted in a team wRC+ of 83, which is tied for 18th with the Chicago White Sox, the team that lost 121 games last season. That’s not good. In a surprising twist, the team with the worst offense so far is the Rockies, with a 53 wRC+. Colorado has yet to play a game in Coors Field but they’ve played three games in Philadelphia and one in Sacramento – both good hitting environments. As if playing in a division with the Dodgers and Padres isn’t bad enough, it doesn’t look like the team is set up for success in 2025.
The Mets are primed for success this season and half the team won’t perform at a level that gets you sent to the minors/released for an extended stretch. Lindor’s the obvious one to improve and things at second base should get better once Jeff McNeil returns. And while it was reasonable to forecast a step back for Vientos, he shouldn’t be anything like this.
Which brings us to the center field conundrum. We can’t call it a platoon, as both Siri and Taylor are RHB. No doubt Carlos Mendoza will ride the hot hand to a large extent but what do you do when both options are hitting like this? And to make matters worse – both players have committed gaffes defensively. Siri has great defensive metrics but he’s bobbled balls while Taylor is a good defender, yet we’ve seen him take a terrible route to a ball that dropped in for a hit that 100% should have been caught.
As bad as Harrison Bader was last year, he at least had a .664 OPS before going on his six-week hot streak. And while he cratered after that span – Bader had a .496 OPS in his final 157 PA – he was still significantly better than both Siri and Taylor here in the early going.
Sure, it’s only seven team games and fewer than that for both Siri and Taylor. But the reason that Siri was available was because he was below the Galvis Line, as he put up a 76 OPS+ last year. This is Siri’s fifth year in the majors, with him eclipsing 100 games played three times. And two of those three seasons, he’s been below the Galvis Line.
His “big” 2023 campaign – the one where he had a 105 OPS+ - he had an ISO 75 points above his lifetime mark in the category. When Siri had a .272 ISO, he was essentially a league-average hitter. Otherwise, he’s been terrible.
Just like we shouldn’t have expected our old pal Herpes – Mallex Smith – to annually post BABIPs in the .366 range, we shouldn’t expect Siri to regularly notch ISOs in the .272 range, either. To put that .272 ISO into perspective, that would have been the fourth-highest mark in the majors last year among qualified hitters. The guy who finished in third place? That would be Juan Soto.
And when Siri doesn’t hit with that type of power, well, he’s not an MLB-quality hitter.
Just to be crystal clear, Siri’s defense and his speed make him a half-decent bench player. It’s just that both the Mets and Mets fans need to have realistic expectations of what they have with the player. He’s not a starter and giving Siri near-starter ABs is a mistake.
It’s tough to advocate for more playing time for a guy hitting as poorly as Taylor is at this moment. But in 1,317 PA in the majors prior to 2025, Taylor has a 101 OPS+. Despite a terrible start in his first season with the Mets – he had a .579 OPS in his first 116 PA in 2024 – Taylor finished the year with a 98 OPS+. There’s every reason to think that by the end of the season, Taylor will be a league-average-type hitter. And he won’t need a crazy ISO to accomplish that feat.
Forget any type of time share – the Mets should make Taylor their starter in center field.
I think Taylor be should be the starting centerfielder because he is a career average offensive player and a slightly better than average defensive player. Mendoza think differently and is instituting a timeshare. The reasons escape logic. Taylor now has to prove himself all over again like he did when wrestling the centerfield starting job away from Bader. Taylor and Siri are free agents next year. Gilbert or Williams or Acuno have the opportunity to be the starting centerfielder in 2026 if they have a good 2025. Taylor would be a good 4th outfielder in 2026 for the Mets.
Assume seven games in is too early to panic in CF as it is too early to panic at second base. The lack of production from the back end of the lineup puts a ton of pressure on the top five and Lindor and Vientos have just starting to get going. As long as it was not our money, I lobbied for Bellinger to play CF, versus platooning two part-time players who struggle to hit. Same way they should have brought back Iglesias knowing that Baty and Acuna were also questionable starters and no one knows when Mauricio will make an appearance. Their play makes you hope McNeil comes back soon. As long as we can keep reeling off wins, we can wait for the offense to catch up.