After ending the month of April in first place in the NL East, here are some of the players that have stood out on the New York Mets in the season’s first month.
April has come and gone and, for the New York Mets and first-year manager Mickey Callaway, it was a successful start to the 2018 season. The Mets (17-9), sit in first place, 1.5 games ahead of second-place Atlanta, which visits Citi Field on Tuesday.
For each month of the season, we will take a look at the best hitter and pitcher of the month. We’ll also note the biggest surprises and disappointments. As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below or tweet me if you disagree: @Rickinator555.
Before Noah Syndergaard takes on Sean Newcomb Tuesday to kick off the month of May, let’s start with looking at who the Amazins’ best hitter was in April.
Best Hitter: Asdrubal Cabrera (.340/.393/.580, 5 HR, 17 RBI)
While Yoenis Cespedes led the team in home runs (six) and RBI (25) for the month, his 43 strikeouts and .233 batting average prevent him from taking home the award for this month.
Instead, it goes to Asdrubal Cabrera because he was arguably the Mets’ most consistent hitter of the month.
The second baseman started off the season with an 11-game hitting streak after going hitless on Opening Day. That number 11 is also the amount of multi-hit April games Cabrera put together. He could also fall into the surprise category when you consider nobody thought he would be second in the National League in batting average and eighth in runs scored (20).
For the Mets, Cabrera is one of the more versatile players they have in their lineup because they could hit him anywhere from the leadoff spot to the middle of the order. If the power numbers continue to go up, he could be in for a nice bounce-back season after a rough 2017.
If I had to give an honorable mention, that would go to third baseman Todd Frazier.
Frazier has brought great energy to the clubhouse. He has four home runs and 17 RBI in 26 games, but the key for him has been his patience at the plate. He has 20 walks and has made the opponent throw more pitches (4.59 pitches per plate appearance). Finally, his defense at third base has been a strength that this team hasn’t had in a while.
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Best Pitcher: SP Jacob deGrom (3-0, 2.06 ERA)
Early in the season, the Mets rotation has been the top two guys—Jacob deGrom and Syndergaard—and then pray for rain. It was a tough call deciding between those two pitchers, but the edge goes to deGrom by a slight margin. He is 3-0 in his first six starts and would have at least one or two more wins if the bullpen could’ve held the lead.
In those first six outings, the right-hander has 48 strikeouts (third in the NL) and he has eight or more K’s in all but two of those starts. He’s allowed one run or fewer on four different occasions. Regardless of how good his pitches are on a particular night, deGrom has been able to reliably go deep into games, sitting third in the NL with 39.1 innings pitched.
Syndergaard’s April should not be overlooked (2-0, 2.86 ERA in six starts). He is just behind deGrom in the strikeout category (46) and he has surrendered only five free passes in 34.2 innings. He has allowed two runs or fewer in four of his six starts. The one thing he has to work is the number of pitches per inning (16.5). If he can get that number down, the sky’s the limit.
Biggest Surprises: Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman
While the Mets could use one of these two pitchers in the starting rotation right now, there is no reason why Callaway should pull Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman out of the bullpen. With Anthony Swarzak on the disabled list (oblique injury), both of these pitchers have had to be used in high-leverage situations and they have flourished in those roles.
If you take out Lugo’s outing in long relief against the Padres on Saturday (three runs in 2.1 innings), he gave up a total of three runs in the eight prior appearances. He has 13 strikeouts on the season and five of those did come against San Diego. During his brief stint in the bullpen, Lugo has used his curveball 27.2 percent of the time. When that pitch is working, it is tough for opposing hitters to figure out.
As for Gsellman, he has given up three runs in 15 innings the entire season and he has 19 strikeouts to six walks. His 1.80 ERA is tied for the lowest of any pitcher on the team and he has yet to give up an extra-base hit the entire year. The average velocity on his fastball is up from 92.7 miles-per-hour last year to 93.5 mph this year and he has upped the use of his slider by five percent (15.5 to 20.5).
Jeurys Familia has been used 15 times, but he is 9-for-12 in saves and has been steady in the ninth inning. With that being said, both Lugo and Gsellman have had to be used more frequently because New York doesn’t have that reliable eighth-inning option. While A.J. Ramos has held opponents to a .063 average, his nine walks in 15 games are more than any reliever on the team.
Until the Mets get Swarzak back, these former two starting pitchers will need to give this kind of production up out of the bullpen for the team to remain in first place the entire season.
Biggest Disappointment: Catchers
It was a rough month of April for the New York Mets at the catcher spot. Travis d’Arnaud had to undergo Tommy John surgery and Kevin Plawecki fractured his hand all before April 13. With those injuries, the new catchers in Queens are a rookie in Tomas Nido and journeyman Jose Lobaton.
Nido and Lobaton have good defensive value, but the Mets aren’t getting much offense out of that position. The two catchers are a combined 8-for-52 (.154) with four RBI and two extra-base hits (both by Lobaton).
Now, it was a given with the injuries that catcher wasn’t going to be relied upon on offense, but those numbers show New York needs to try to find someone to help at that position between now and the trade deadline.
Without an upgrade at that spot, the bottom of the lineup is easier to navigate for opposing pitchers with the Mets hitting their pitcher in the number eight spot and Amed Rosario hitting .238 down at the number nine spot in the lineup.
It was a close call between the catchers and the back end of the rotation for the biggest disappointment. Matt Harvey is now in the bullpen, Jason Vargas struggled in his first start as a Met, and Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz have been inconsistent. If you combine those four pitchers, they have an ERA of 5.87.