On Opening Day, the Mets had big free agent acquisition Curtis Granderson hit cleanup. He started his Mets career 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. And it hasn’t gotten much better since. Last night, Granderson heard Mets’ fans boo him, as he twice came up empty with multiple runners on base in the late innings. With runners on first and second in the eighth inning, he weakly popped up to third base. Then in the ninth inning with runners on second and third, Granderson struck out. He now has a dismal .509 OPS and has whiffed 19 times in 57 ABs.
If Granderson was smart, he would have written it into his contract that he would not be the team’s Opening Day cleanup hitter in any season of his four-year deal. Hitting fourth has been nothing but bad luck for the men who’ve filled that role for the Mets in the recent past.
Carlos Delgado heard MVP chants from Mets fans in the second half of 2008 and when the 2009 season began, he was in his customary cleanup spot in the order. Delgado did his usual fine job; however, injuries limited him to just 26 games that season and he never played in the majors again.
In 2010, Mike Jacobs was the team’s fourth-place hitter on Opening Day. Jacobs holds a nice place in the hearts of Mets fans. He had a strong debut and was part of the package that delivered Delgado to the Mets. But the 2010 season killed a lot of that goodwill. Jacobs lasted just seven games with the Mets and was released with a .208 AVG.
The following season, Carlos Beltran batted cleanup the first game of the year. Beltran had a great season but there was the tiny matter of him being traded in the middle of the year.
In 2012, the Mets inserted Ike Davis into the fourth hole. Davis went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts that day and suffered through a terrible 56-game stretch, where he had a .507 OPS. Davis rebounded greatly in the second half of the season and once again found himself batting cleanup on Opening Day the following season. But he repeated his terrible start, got sent to the minors, came back and ended the year on the disabled list.
While the cleanup spot has been unlucky for the individual who started there for the Mets the past few years, the team itself has received decent production from the spot. Even last year, with Davis’ struggles, the Mets had a .751 OPS from the fourth spot, thanks mainly to Marlon Byrd delivering an .873 OPS in his team-leading 222 PA hitting fourth.
Even in the star-crossed 2009 season, when everyone landed on the disabled list, the Mets had an .852 OPS from their cleanup hitters. Six different players had at least 84 PA batting fourth in the lineup that year and the worst mark the Mets received from that group was the .835 OPS David Wright posted. Even Jeff Francoeur came through batting cleanup that season, as he notched an .888 OPS in 101 PA.
While it’s always wise not to panic and overreact to what a player does in his first 16 games of the season, at this point no one would be surprised if Granderson did not end the season as the team’s cleanup hitter. The only question then becomes who will. It seems there are two front-runners at this point – Lucas Duda and Chris Young.
Duda leads the team with three homers, he has a .213 ISO and if we’re being honest, he plays a corner spot and just looks like a slugger. Last year when his best attribute was getting on base by a walk, he still logged 41 games and 182 PA batting cleanup. Meanwhile, Young has a 32-HR season under his belt and when Juan Lagares comes back, he’ll be an outfield corner, too.
Speaking of Lagares, he would have to be considered a darkhorse candidate for the cleanup spot. While he’s yet to spend a single day in the majors batting fourth, there is no obvious spot in the lineup to bat him. Lagares has spent more time hitting sixth than any other spot in the lineup. But if he continues his hot hitting, no doubt Terry Collins will look to move him higher in the lineup. On the day when the outfield consists of the two Youngs and Lagares, don’t be shocked if Lagares logs some time in the cleanup spot.
So, what should the Mets do with Granderson? Right now there are not many choices except to keep writing his name in the lineup card and hope for him to improve his pitch recognition. Anecdotally, he seems to be following the Davis plan of watching strikes and swinging at balls. And it doesn’t seem to be a strength of this coaching staff to help a player with that issue.
If by the time that Lagares comes back Granderson still isn’t hitting, then hopefully Collins will rotate all four of his outfielders. We all want to see Granderson snap out of it and return to the player he was in 2011, when he had a .916 OPS. But the fact that he was great three years ago is not enough of a reason to play him day after day in 2014 if he’s stinking up the joint.
It doesn’t mean he should be platooned or benched the second Lagares comes back. But there’s no reason for him to be in the lineup every day if he’s hitting like a backup shortstop. There’s plenty of playing time for four outfielders and three spots if the manager is willing to be creative. The ability of Lagares and Young to both play center will be a big help in this regard. And having multiple options for the cleanup spot should be an asset, too.
Today, a day game after a night game, rest him and play Kirk. Then flip him and Duda in the order for awhile to ease some of the expectations. No reason to panic, just some minor adjustments for now. Q and Recker should play today also.
Oh……and Valverde should not
Ohhh,Valverde….
Tejada was an Alderson gamble that so far hasn’t paid off. When do they pull the plug on this guy?
TC in combination with the FO have made real blunders in building a line up. Granderson is not a clean up hitter. His best years at the plate give almost no ABs from the 4 hole, yet there is an insistence by TC to wedge people into the line up where they want a player to be, not where the player naturally performs best. I was keen on the Granderson hire, but my trepidation emerged instantly when we found out he was going to protect DW from the clean up position. That made his signing a big mistake. He is naturally a 2 hole hitter, and performed elsewhere in the line up, but not at 4. Leave it to the Mets to have all the advanced metrics, but can’t figure out the basics. The same will hold true for Lagares, who clearly is finding a great location in the transitional spot in the line up…he’s doing great batting 6th, and he should stay there, but sure as the sun rises in the East, TC will move him (as he did to him last year) all over, change the rules and expectations and watch him fail. I’m not happy about grandersons production (and somewhat mysterious OF play), but I believe he has been tasked to do something that is not what he does.
It has been announced that Murphy will now bat clean-up and Granderson will bat second.
I guess I wouldn’t call it a huge success
so … let’s see … we have this guy hitting .150 and instead of batting him 4th, we’ll move him up to 2nd so he can get even more at bats. Oh yeah, we’ll take Daniel Murphy out of the 2 slot.
Yup. Terry Collins working his magic. Makes perfect sense to me … I think we should so all we can to limit the RBI possibilities for David Wright.
Well that’s where he hits best over a long track record. SA has created a problem by not building a line up with strengths in the right place. I heard Jim bowden and jim duquette say that players moving leagues should be give. So e time to learn the new pitching.
Granderson will probably see more fastballs as the 2 hitter, but he’s been late catching up with them so far. Hopefully with Wright protecting him, and not the other way around, ee won’t see a steady diet of breaking stuff down and away and his production will return. Papa Murph can hit anywhere, and will probably hit 5th soon once Duda takes over the cleanup spot. In my opinion.