We’ve heard a lot about the lack of hustle for one particular Met, a very well compensated infielder. But there are plenty of Mets who do hustle, and we’ll zero in on three of the current Mets who display the qualities of a hustling ball player.

Hustle of course, is not a quality that can be measured by a metric. Although you can’t quantify hustle, most fans know it when they see it. The definition used in this article is that a hustling player is one who does whatever it takes, within the rules, to help his team win. It includes, but is not limited to, such components as running hard to first base even on likely outs, making hard but clean slides into second to break up double plays, taking the extra base, diving for balls on defense, and willingness to take a HBP when necessary.

Center fielder Juan Lagares exhibits these qualities. Lagares may not have advanced with his hitting to the satisfaction of fans, but few of those fans would deny that he hustles in all aspects of the game. He had a signature play back in April in Philadelphia. Lagares beat out an infield single, a hustling play by itself, but there is more to come. After advancing to second when the succeeding batter walked, Lagares sprinted toward third when the next batter hit a sharp grounder to first. When the ball ricocheted toward the second baseman, Lagares kept on running and slid into home with the winning run in a 7-6 Mets win. It’s not every day you see a player score from second on a ball that does not leave the infield.

Just last week, in a win against the Giants, Lagares raced full speed though the outfield, crashing into the left centerfield fence to turn an extra base hit into an out. Lagares made an impression on the Giants, and a physical impression on the padding on the wall itself.

Next in our listing of hustling Mets is Jeff McNeil. His signature play occurred against the Reds on April 30. With two outs, McNeil dragged a bunt to the right side of the infield, which was handled by the first baseman. The ball was tossed to the pitcher covering first. McNeil raced down the line and dove into first base, a millisecond ahead of the pitcher touching the base. Normally it is not advised for a runner to dive into first, but in this case with the pitcher having a good chance to tag an upright runner, the dive was the right play. Lagares scored from third on the play, and that was the game winning RBI in a 4-3 Met victory.

McNeil does plenty of diving for balls on defense as well. He is not the kind of player who is going to be wearing a clean uniform at the conclusion of a game he is in.

Brandon Nimmo is another hustling Met, although he has had less chances to display his hustle due to an injury this year. When Nimmo draws a walk, he takes a page from the Pete Rose playbook and runs to first base. Nimmo is more than willing to take one for the team, as they say, he did set a team record last year for HBP. Nimmo was also the the 2018 Heart and Hustle Award winner for the Mets.

There are plenty of other Mets, notably rookie slugger Pete Alonso, who play a hustling style. So don’t judge the Mets on the actions of a few (or maybe just one player,) this is a hustling squad.

6 comments on “Juan Lagares and the hustling Mets

  • TexasGusCC

    Overall, the Mets play hard and I don’t remember anyone saying differently. That’s what makes the well compensated infielder such an outlier and so visible. Of course, according to Callaway, these younger Mets would be better off not killing themselves too much and learning how to “save themselves” by emulating this lazy-ass infielder… What a crappy leader Callaway is.

  • Edwin e Pena

    If Lagares ever hit .270 he’d be an All Star.
    Great D, hustle and attitude…no bat…alas…like a hot dame…w/ a great face, nice bust, no A… !

    Like Mick Jagger said, “you can’t always get what you want..”

    • Brian Joura

      Lagares doesn’t walk, doesn’t hit for power and doesn’t steal bases. He’d have to hit .320 just to merit consideration for an AS berth,

      And his defense? Both UZR and DRS have him as a below-average fielder. He may be the Mets’ best option in CF. But that doesn’t mean he’s still an elite defensive player.

  • Mike Walczak

    By position, the Mets are last in the NL and 29th in MLB for batting average for center field at .197, 26th in home runs and 21st in RBIs. Lagares might look cool, and be a lot of fun to watch him run around, but he is not a formula for success to win games.

  • Peter Hyatt

    This is not stat based but I don’t think Legares looks anything like his GG play of years ago.

    Recently —he failed to run down flies.

    I wonder if he’s hesitant due to injuries.

    I don’t consider him a non hustling player. He’s not emulating Cano.

    Add Alonso to list of hustlers.

    I’m not so sure about Rosario 2019.

  • Mike Walczak

    I guess Lagares changing his swing hasn’t worked out very well.

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