When the Mets walked 11 hitters Thursday in a loss to the Oakland A’s, it further exposed a season-long issue. No other team in the NL is walking hitters as much as the Mets and the only other team in baseball with a higher walk rate and a higher overall total is the historically bad Chicago White Sox.
The team has largely downplayed the issue but with the NL Wild Card standings looking as though they might come down to the wire, the Mets can no longer afford to downplay it. Manager Carlos Mendoza and president of baseball operations David Stearns have taken a different tone on the subject in recent days, acknowledging that it’s a problem that needs solving immediately.
“I think we’ve been working on it all year and we still need to get better,” Stearns said Friday at Citi Field. “It’s partly recognition and a continued emphasis with all of our pitchers and catchers. And it’s execution; we have got to execute our pitches and throw strikes at a better clip than we’ve done recently.”
The Mets don’t see one common thread that is leading hitters to them walking more than four hitters every night. Rather, they view this as an individual issue. They have pitchers who have historically high walk rates on the starting staff and in the bullpen, so there are a variety of factors with each specific pitcher.
“At times, it’s trying to be a little bit too perfect. Probably at times, losing track of the situation in the game,” Stearns said. “And look, at times it’s that 50-50 call that’s not going your way regardless of the reasons. But we can’t walk that many guys. You can’t consistently win baseball games with that many free passes. We know that. We’ve been working to address it, but we need to do better.”
Separate problems require separate solutions. David Peterson and Tylor Megill have always issued a lot of walks, as has newly-acquired reliever Ryne Stanek. Sean Manaea has seen his walk rate rise over the last few seasons. That doesn’t make them ineffective pitchers, but the Mets can’t exactly transform them into different pitchers overnight, nor do they want to.
“To just change them into non-walking guys, that’s very, very difficult to do,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner told the Daily News. “I don’t think anyone has the solution for that. But we’re striking out a lot of people. So, that’s the only way we’ve been able to be somewhat effective is that we are striking out [guys at a high rate], especially in the bullpen where we’re No. 1 in strikeouts.
The Mets’ bullpen leads the league with 10.62 strikeouts per nine innings. As a whole, the Mets are striking out 9.02 hitters per nine innings, which is the fifth-best rate in baseball. Clearly, they’re already doing something right when it comes to sequencing, so the Mets want to build on that.
“Throwing in-zone pitches that they can land in the zone, and in counts that they need strikes,” Hefner said. “At 2-1 or 3-1, we’re not trying to have them throw a pitch that they don’t normally throw in the zone. That’s probably not going to lead to success. So it’s a lot. That’s what we’ve been talking about, it just hasn’t happened. I don’t know if there’s a clear answer.”
The answer is also not Brandon Sproat.
The 23-year-old right-hander who was drafted in the second round out of the University of Florida last year is quickly rising through the Mets system. He’s gone 6-3 with a 2.55 ERA over 19 appearances (18 starts) in High-A, Double-A and Triple-A.
With right-handed rookie Christian Scott injured, it begs the question as to whether or not the Mets will promote their top pitching prospect in September when rosters expand. While Stearns didn’t rule out the possibility of a big league call-up for Sproat, it doesn’t sound likely.
“I think he’s had about as good a minor league season as you could possibly have,” Stearns said. “I think he’s thrown more strikes, he’s rounded out his arsenal. He’s improved his changeup, he’s competed at a very high level very consistently. He’s bounced back from the occasional rough outing. So we’ve been very pleased with his development this year. He just needs experience.
“This is a very new player to professional baseball, and he has moved very rapidly through our system. He has earned that, and he deserves that, but I think we need to make sure that he also dominates the level he’s at now before we really start talking about what comes next.”
There is no quick fix for the walks and no one pitcher that can save their season. Kodai Senga isn’t coming back anytime soon.
Still, the Mets aren’t giving up.
“We’re just going to keep being positive and attacking guys with our strengths,” Hefner said. “And hope for a ground-ball double play.”
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