Starling Marte has rebounded nicely from sluggish start

With his two-homer game last night, Starling Marte has a .465 SLG mark, just .001 behind what he posted last year. A recent poll question asked you to own up to things you got wrong about the 2022 Mets. In my preseason projection series, my forecast was for Marte to have a .399 SLG. That’s not my worst miss but it’s certainly not right, either.

The first 47 games of the season, Marte had a .405 SLG. Since then, he has a .509 SLG in 256 PA, including 10 HR. Marte has an .872 OPS in that span – hitting for both AVG and power – and being hands-down the most-productive outfielder on the team. So, what’s gotten into Marte since the end of May?

There’s probably not one answer to that question but something that perhaps we should consider is that the sluggish start offensively could have been caused by his position switch defensively. For the first time in the majors, Marte was playing right field. We sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that if you can play center field in the majors, you can play either of the corner spots, too.

For what it’s worth, former Mets manager Terry Collins considered right field in Citi Field particularly tough to play.

Going by the eye test, Marte looks really good in right field, especially for a guy who hadn’t played the position in the majors. He runs down balls in the gap and near the foul line, too. And his arm has been a plus in right, too. In fact, the only thing that Marte appears to struggle with defensively is with balls hit near the outfield wall.

No one should expect guys to run full speed into the outfield wall like Mike Baxter did to preserve Johan Santana’s no-hitter. At the same time, Marte is much more likely to give up on a ball and play the carom rather than feeling for the wall and making the play, like we’ve seen Brandon Nimmo do numerous times in center field.

It’s not like this happens on a regular basis. It’s certainly been fewer than 10 times this year and it might be fewer than five. But it’s the type of play that typically results in an extra-base hit and becomes a costly non-out.

So, what do the advanced defensive systems think of Marte? DRS and UZR are split, with the former grading him at +6 and the latter giving him a (-4.4) rating. The Statcast numbers lean towards UZR, giving him a (-2) in both OAA and RAA. It’s the opposite of last year, when DRS gave him a (-4) rating while he scored a +1 in the other three metrics.

From a pure history/math point of view, the DRS numbers make sense. Marte is moving from the tougher spot in center field to an easier spot in the corner and we would expect his numbers to improve. But from an anecdotal view, the UZR/OAA/RAA numbers also make sense, as he’s moving to a position he’s never played before and playing the majority of games in a park where RF is tougher than normal to play.

Ultimately, no matter where you stand on his defensive numbers in this partial season, playing Marte in right field gives the Mets their best defensive outfield. It’s a decision that Buck Showalter made early in Spring Training and is the type of move that feels extremely doubtful that his predecessor would have made. It’s one of many things for which Showalter deserves praise.

Let’s circle back to Marte’s offensive surge.

It’s also possible that the slow start was weather/ball related. Early in the year, all of the talk was about how offense was down throughout the league. In April, the average runs per game was 4.03 and it was up to 4.32 in July.

Another thing to consider is BABIP. Early in the year, Marte had a .318 BABIP, which would be a good number for most players. But Marte has a lifetime .344 mark in the category. In his last 256 PA, Marte has a .357 BABIP, which has brought his season-long BABIP to .340 in 2022.

Finally, we know early in the season that Marte was dealing with the loss of his grandmother, the woman who raised him after his mom passed away early in Marte’s life. He went on the bereavement list in mid-May. He wouldn’t be human if the loss of someone so close to him didn’t affect his performance.

At the end of the day, the “why” isn’t of primary importance. Marte is giving the Mets the type of performance they hoped for when they signed him as a free agent. Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor being among the league leaders in RBIs has taken away a lot of attention from Marte’s offensive output. But he’s been a big reason for why the club is in first place.

In his last 256 PA, Marte has a 150 wRC+. Everyone has been impressed with Alonso’s production this year and he has a 144 wRC+. Perhaps Wednesday’s two-homer game will have people reassessing Marte’s season. At the very least, he’s picked up the slack caused by Nimmo’s disappointing offensive output the last couple of months.