As the architect of a team that began Wednesday tied for MLB’s best record, there isn’t much Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns views as a club weakness.
But Stearns knows there is room for improvement in one area, specifically.
“I think we can play better defense,” Stearns said as the Mets prepared to conclude their three-game series against the Pirates at Citi Field. “The players we have are capable of playing better defense.”
Stearns didn’t list the offenders, but Francisco Lindor’s defensive play has been below his usual standard.
Lindor, normally a Gold Glove contender at shortstop, entered the day at zero outs above average, according to Statcast — placing him in MLB’s 45th percentile. Lindor already had six errors after committing 12 all of last season.
Juan Soto was an American League Gold Glove finalist last season with the Yankees, but began play at minus-4 outs above average, according to Statcast, which placed him in MLB’s fifth percentile.
“I think we have a couple of different players who are good defenders, very good defenders in certain cases who have made some mistakes this year,” Stearns said. “That’s going to happen and it gets magnified in smaller samples, like we’ve had over the first six weeks of the season. But I would expect us to be a better defensive team over the next 4 ½ months this season than we have over the first month and a half.”
Stearns said he uses a combination of the eye test, internal metrics and conversations with the coaching staff to evaluate the team’s play defensively.
Stearns cited Brandon Nimmo’s play in left field as a position at which the Mets have excelled defensively.
One area in which the Mets have excelled is limiting the opponent’s running game.
Entering play Mets catchers had thrown out 14-of-33 (42.4 percent) of runners attempting to steal, the best in MLB. The league average was 22 percent.
Francisco Alvarez, Luis Torrens and Hayden Senger have been forces behind the plate, but it starts with pitchers utilizing efficient deliveries to the plate.
“We have done a very good job controlling the running game,” Stearns said. “That’s certainly been one of the highlights of our defense so far this year. That’s a testament not only to the three catchers we have had up here, all who have thrown really well, but also to our pitching group as a whole.
“It was certainly a weakness early for us last year and it was something that we got exposed with early last year and we began to address it with some personnel changes and it did become a priority, especially with our coaching staff. We’re in a pretty good spot there right now.”
Stearns was asked if there was any one area of the team, whether it was offense, pitching or bullpen, that had surpassed his expectations to this point.
“Not really,” he said. “I think we felt pretty good that we had a balanced team and that we were going to be pretty good. We have played pretty well, but I don’t think we have played flawless baseball by any stretch of the imagination. I think we’re a good team that has played well and then frankly we’ve had moments where there’s probably a couple of games that have gotten away from us.
“But I don’t know that anything has really shocked me in terms of the quality of performance. We have got good players. They are playing hard. They are working really hard and we have been able to win some games.”
