A look at the offensive output of the three NL East teams to make the playoffs in 2022

One of the best ways to have a good season is to have your stars stay healthy and produce. Focusing strictly on the hitters, the 101-win Mets did an excellent job of following this concept. After years of pointing out the discrepancy of how healthy other teams in the division were compared to the Mets, it was New York’s turn to enjoy some good health. Of course, the pitching was a different story but we will have a tighter focus today.

Let’s look at the three NL East teams to make the playoffs. Here are all of their players to amass 500 or more PA in 2022. There’s nothing magical about 500 PA – just a nice round number that you can’t reach if you spend two months on the IL. The chart is sorted by PA but you can click on any column header to sort by that class, instead.

Name	Team	PA	OPS+
Francisco Lindor	NYM	706	125
Matt Olson	ATL	699	122
Dansby Swanson	ATL	696	115
Austin Riley	ATL	693	142
Pete Alonso	NYM	685	146
Brandon Nimmo	NYM	673	130
Rhys Hoskins	PHI	672	122
Kyle Schwarber	PHI	669	130
Alec Bohm	PHI	631	100
Jeff McNeil	NYM	589	140
J.T. Realmuto	PHI	562	129
Nick Castellanos	PHI	558	95
Eduardo Escobar	NYM	542	106
Mark Canha	NYM	542	122
Ronald Acuna Jr.	ATL	533	114
Marcell Ozuna	ATL	507	89
Starling Marte	NYM	505	132

The Mets led the way with seven players compared to five for the other two teams. And in addition to having the most, they had the most-productive players, too. There were six players on this list to amass a 130 or better OPS+ and four of them played their home games in Queens. And on the flip side, both Atlanta and Philadelphia had a player fail to crack triple digits in OPS+, while the worst mark for the Mets was Escobar’s 106.

While it’s incredibly important to have the guys with the most PA to produce, there’s more to a team than how its top players perform. And the other two squads had much more success with their players who accumulated between 100 and 499 PA. Now, these were starters who missed more time than Marte or guys who got mid-season promotions or bench players or trade acquisitions.

Here are the rest of the players on our three teams that accumulated triple digits in PA and produced an OPS+ of 100 or more:

Name	Team	PA	OPS+
Michael Harris	ATL	441	135
Bryce Harper	PHI	426	145
Travis d’Arnaud	ATL	426	119
Jean Segura	PHI	387	104
William Contreras	ATL	376	138
Luis Guillorme	NYM	335	101
Orlando Arcia	ATL	234	104
Daniel Vogelbach	NYM	183	139
Vaughn Grissom	ATL	156	121
Darick Hall	PHI	142	121
Brandon Marsh	PHI	138	116
Garrett Stubbs	PHI	121	128

Here, the Phillies and Braves each had five players reach our threshold while the Mets had just two. Injuries kept Harper from reaching 500 PA but he was pretty darn good when he was able to play. And we see the two Braves rookies who had such strong years here, along with their C/DH guys who combined for 802 PA at a rate similar to what Lindor gave the Mets.

As for the two guys who made the list for the Mets, Guillorme had the lowest OPS+ of the group and if the season lasted two more weeks, his declining production as the year went on probably would have kept him from making the list. And while Vogelbach’s production was excellent, he was firmly in the bottom half in PA.

There’s one other piece of information that’s pertinent but not reflected in the charts. That is: How many players did our three teams have who amassed significant PA but who didn’t produce at a league-average or better rate? Here are the number of players for each team who had 100-499 PA with a sub-100 OPS+ along with how many PA those guys accumulated:

Atlanta – 4, 1,011
New York – 5, 993
Philadelphia – 6, 1,418

Here’s where the Phillies have a nice shot to make up ground on the other two teams in the division. Instead of Didi Gregorius and Johan Camargo combining for 398 PA of roughly a 63 OPS+, they’re likely to get 600+ PA at double that OPS+ from free agent acquisition Trea Turner.

Meanwhile, the Mets hope to get upgrades – even if not quite that significant – from catcher and DH. That task will be a tad easier if they give PA to Francisco Alvarez in both of those spots. If Alvarez gets the 310 PA that Tomas Nido received in 2022, odds are that he will provide an upgrade on Nido’s 72 OPS+.

Which brings us to the Braves.

Atlanta losing Swanson is the most significant offensive loss for the main three NL East teams. The Braves hope to make up that production with full seasons from Ozzie Albies and Grissom. But while most view Albies as a star, Swanson’s 2022 was slightly better than anything Albies has produced to date. Albies’ career-best in OPS+ is the 113 mark he notched in 2019. In 1,079 PA since then, Albies has a 104 OPS+

And while everyone is writing in Grissom as a star for the next decade or more, let’s recognize that his unexpectedly successful MLB debut came with a .350 BABIP. With his speed and solid contact numbers, an elevated BABIP shouldn’t be a surprise. But if someone offers you the chance to wager on him producing a mark 60 points above the MLB average, as he did in 2022, my hope is you take the under.

A reasonable guess is that Atlanta’s middle infield will have two guys around a 110 OPS+ – which is far from a disaster. It’s just that the Mets and Phillies can expect better from their DP combos. But don’t fret Braves fans, if the recent past is any indication, the team has a remarkable ability to overachieve somewhere along the way.