Home Teams with Howard Megdal, June 18, 2020
The Mets are well-positioned — Must-click New York sports links
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The Mets are well-positioned
Strictly as a baseball fan, Wednesday night’s revelation that Major League Baseball’s latest proposal to the players includes a universal designated hitter bothers me.
The critics of pitcher hitting never focus on the right thing, reflecting their lesser intellects — it is not about the pleasure of watching Bartolo Colon hitting a home run, though that is an undeniably wonderful part of the exercise.
It is that the entirety of the strategy, later in games, follows naturally from the presence of the pitcher hitting. Who gets picked to pitch to which hitters in what order, how long to stick with one pitcher relative to how many batting order slots remain until he is due up, double switches that impact both future at-bats and even the level of fielding prowess in the field — a lot is lost when we move to an all-DH world. I’ll enjoy baseball significantly less because of this (though, to be clear, it is still baseball, and I will love it very much).
But from the perspective of the New York Mets? This solves some very real problems.
Consider that in 2019, the team’s best hitter was the rookie phenom, Pete Alonso, with a 148 OPS+ and 53 home runs. He is young, cost-controlled, and he can play either first base or… first base.
Then there’s Dominic Smith, also young, cost-controlled, and let’s not forget — a former first-round pick. He posted a 134 OPS+ last year, and the Mets tried to play him in left field. Dom Smith is not, we now know, a left fielder.
A season that allows for both of them to play at the same time in the same lineup? Great for the Mets. A future that allows the Mets to plan around them both? Even better.
As for 2020 itself, the Mets still have a chance of getting Yoenis Cespedes back, in the final year of his contract. Cespedes could still play the outfield, but he’s returning from an injury likely to limit his mobility.
Sure sounds like a useful option at DH to me.
Cespedes is a right-handed hitter. Smith is a left-handed hitter.
Boom. Mets have their lineup set for 2020 and beyond.
So yes, I am sad about the DH. Baseball fans everywhere should be sad about the DH.
But the Mets shouldn’t be.
Read This
Joe Judge supports his players if they wish to kneel.
Enjoy this terrific profile of longtime Rochester Red Wings organist Fred Costello.
Brett Baty is one future Met to watch.
The Yankees may not have the public moral high ground over the Astros soon.
Stillwater girls’ soccer coach Christine Ihnatolya was named coach of the year by the Times-Union.
James Herbert has a terrific piece on Spencer Dinwiddie, long touted in this space.