NY Mets: 3 players who need to step up and carry the offense

Dominic Smith

Up next we have a former first-round pick infielder turned outfielder in Dominic Smith. Smith had somewhat high expectations going into this year after breaking out in 2019 and continuing that trend into a strong 2020 season.

Although Smith’s expectations were not as high as others on the team going into the year, he has still disappointed this season.

Smith had a nice breakout season in 2019 and continued that success in the shortened 2020 season. Although both seasons were not over a full 162 game season for Smith due to injury in 2019 and the shortened season in 2020, it had appeared Smith had figured it out and was going to be an important everyday piece for the Amazins going forward.

Unfortunately, Smith has taken a bit of a step backward this season and has not been the same person offensively as the last two seasons.

His walk rate, hard-hit percentage, and line-drive percentage are all right in line where they were the past two seasons where he took the next step forward. His batting average on balls in play is lower than both of his previous two seasons which does show that he is simply getting a bit unlucky.

Whether it is Smith simply just getting unlucky, him having a mechanical issue, something as simple as just getting off to a slow start, or something else, he needs to figure it out quickly as the Mets offense needs the 2019-2020 version of him to help carry the Mets offense.

Smith has been better than the other two guys, but he has still been disappointing and needs to pick it up and help carry the offense.