Mets Would Be Well Served By Renewed Commitment to Baserunning
Earlier this offseason, the New York Mets installed former 2000s staple Tony Tarasco as the team’s first-base coach with a separate focus on improving the Mets’ baserunning and outfield defense. Needless to say, there is plenty of room for improvement in both areas for this team. Let’s focus on the basepaths. Last season, per FanGraphs‘ […]
The post Mets Would Be Well Served By Renewed Commitment to Baserunning first appeared on Metsmerized Online.
Earlier this offseason, the New York Mets installed former 2000s staple Tony Tarasco as the team’s first-base coach with a separate focus on improving the Mets’ baserunning and outfield defense.
Needless to say, there is plenty of room for improvement in both areas for this team. Let’s focus on the basepaths.
Last season, per FanGraphs‘ baserunning metric BsR (an all-compassing stat that translates baserunning into a below-or-above-average runs-added metric), as a team, the Mets’ ranked 29th in baseball with -11.1 BsR.
Among batters with over 60 plate appearances last season, only Andres Gimenez (3.1 BsR), Dominic Smith (0.6), and Brandon Nimmo (0.0) registered positive metrics.
In 2019, the Mets were in the postseason hunt well into August and only had four players (minimum 100 PA) with BsRs in the black (Nimmo, 1.9, BsR; Michael Conforto, 1.4; Amed Rosario, 1.3; Adeiny Hechavarria, 0.4).
Gimenez and Rosario are off to Cleveland, Hechavarria’s forgettable tenure in Queens is long over, and Conforto and Nimmo experienced noticeable drop-offs last year, albeit in an arguably untrustable 60-game season.
Again, room for improvement.
Now, a high BsR metric doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with being a competitive ballclub (the Dodgers accumulated -5.1 BsR last season, 27th in MLB), but sound fundamentals on the basepaths can certainly pay positive dividends over the course of a season.
During the Mets’ last prolonged stretch of true (regular season) success — 2006 through 2008 — the team was one of the most capable baserunning teams in the game.
Per FanGraphs, New York’s 47.4 BsR over that span ranked second in MLB. Jose Reyes‘ 28.2 BsR and Carlos Beltran‘s 26.7 were good for second and fourth in the National League, respectively, over that timeframe. David Wright ranked third on the team — and 22nd in the NL — over that span with a 9.1 mark
Philadephia’s cumulative 62.6 BsR led majors during those years — which makes perfect sense considering how 2007 and 2008 turned out in the NL East — and lends even more credence to the importance of good, basic first-to-third-type fundamentals.
As MMO’s Jordan Grossman pointed out on Sunday (Twitter), two potential Mets targets — center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and infielder Kolten Wong (good opinion piece from MMO’s Thomas Hall regarding Wong’s potential value to New York here) — could bring much-needed relief to a group whose baserunning could use a shot in the, er, legs.
Bradley’s 1.9 BsR since the start of 2019 is good for 21st in the American League. Respectable, no doubt. Wong’s 9.4 BsR over that span ranks fourth in MLB. That’s elite.
A championship ballclub is a finely-tuned machine, right down to the most elementary facets of its operation. Baserunning, defense, etc; all of these minor ingredients are major components of sustainable success (to note, Bradley would bring improved skills in both areas to the Mets).
One would imagine the Mets are well aware of their previous shortcomings and have put forth a renewed dedication to reinforcing an at-times glaring organizational weak spot, as evidenced by their hiring of Tarasco.
What’s next? We shall see.
The post Mets Would Be Well Served By Renewed Commitment to Baserunning first appeared on Metsmerized Online.