According to ESPN, the 2014 Mets have struck out 53 times over their first five games of the season. That’s a new team record, shattering the previous record of 44 strikeouts over their first five games in 1968. The high strikeout totals shouldn’t be a surprise to Mets fans. They were tied with the Braves in 2013 for third-highest team strikeouts in the MLB with 1,384. That was also the franchise record, by the way, and tied for sixth-most all time. This team strikes out in bunches, and the additions of Curtis Granderson and Chris Young in the off-season will only work to increase the total.
This is a serious problem, right? Not necessarily, as teams have shown they can win even with ridiculously high strikeout totals. One need look no further than the aforementioned Braves, who despite joining the Mets to lead the National League in strikeouts in 2013, won 96 games and the National League East. The Pirates, Red Sox, Indians, and Reds were teams that also finished in the top ten in strikeouts yet made the post-season in some form in 2013.
That fact that high-strikeout teams have been successful isn’t really all that shocking since strikeouts have been up across baseball recently. In fact, the strikeout total in baseball has gone up each year since 2006. It’s an alarming trend, though one that may not be coincidentally tied to two factors in today’s game. The first is that we’ve seemingly entered a new “era of the pitcher,” something that is a welcome sight to many after the PED-fueled 1990’s and early 2000’s. The second is that the strikeout has simply become an accepted outcome of major league at-bats, especially when they’re accompanied by more home runs and total runs scored.
The second point is important here. That 2013 Braves team that struck out at a high rate also hit more home runs (leading the National League), walked more, and scored more total runs than the Mets. This is where the additions of Granderson and Young are expected to help rather than hurt. That’s the hope, at least. The fact that their pitching outperformed the Mets’ in virtually every category also explains why they were so successful, which leads to the answer to the question at the head of this article.
Yes, the Mets can win even with a high number of strikeouts. They just need to pair those strikeouts with more runs and better run prevention. The 2014 Mets haven’t done a very good job at either of those yet, but it’s obviously still very early. The rotation is solid and deep and the lineup still has potential. The bullpen has been an utter disaster, though there is still time for it to right itself. The 2014 Mets may very well break the franchise strikeout record they set in 2013, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still win a lot of ballgames.
No.
While Chris has summed up my answer very nicely, I want to add that three years ago the Diamondbacks had a better team than the Mets with alot of expected strikeouts. They featured Upton, Reynolds, Montero, Chris Young, Kelly Johnson, and Adam LaRoche. This team was a strikeout machine and the Diamondbacks blew it up. Why? Because rallies were not sustained and if the long ball didn’t come, they were dead.
I would prefer to watch a team with good hitting fundamentals than an all or nothing windstorm.
When you go to Fangraphs and check out team total runs scored it indicates only 3 of the top fifteen teams had a K% of above 20%. 10 teams that were in the bottom 15 had K% above 20%. Teams don’t score runs when they strikeout. Yes there are teams that win in spite of the fact they strikeout alot. As a general manager, I would seek players who don’t strike out alot but are consistent contact hitters with above average wOBA because the object of the game is to score more runs than your opponent. No, I don’t think the Mets can be sucessful offensively with this approach. The Mets , when they win will be winning with their starting pitching in spite of this handicap. Philosophically I can’t agree with Sandy on this one.
I completely agree with TexasGus and Metsense. If you have power bats up and down a line up, yeah, strikeouts aren’t that big of a deal. But this lineup (no offense), in this ballpark, they can’t survive that way. This is a big park made for doubles and triples, not strikeouts and homers.