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

The New York Mets offense has had a wild ride this season. With a lot of the team having seen time on the injured list, it put other players in a position with more pressure to stand up. Unfortortuntly, a lot of the main staple guys have not been able to step up.

As we arrive at the summer months, the Mets are just getting back a lot of injured players that will hopefully bring them their deep feared lineup that has the potential to be one of the best in the league.

Although the Mets are finally getting back key guys and will essentially have a full-strength lineup, there are still players that need to pick up the pace.

The Mets have three guys that really need to step up at the plate and do more to help the struggling offense.

Although the entire offense as a whole has struggled this year, there are people whose struggles stand out more. Once you have a significant amount of time in the league or are an established Major League hitter, certain things are expected from you.

Let’s look at three players that need to step up from an offensive standpoint.

James McCann

I would say James McCann was brought in more for his defense than his offense, but his offense has still disappointed greatly this season.

McCann had a breakout season in 2019, his first of two seasons for the Chicago White Sox. Fast forward to the shortened 2020 season last year, his improved offense stayed with him and earned him a deal with the New York Mets for $40.6 million over 4 years.

Now in his first season in Queens, McCann is hitting similar to his Detroit Tiger days when he was not exactly a threat at the plate.

Although his defense is a severe upgrade to the last Mets catcher Wilson Ramos, his offense is going to need to be picked up. Being paid $10 million a season to play defense with below-average offense numbers is not going to settle well with New York fans.

McCann’s walk rate is actually up from previous years and his hard-hit rate is right on par with his previous two solid years. Part of the problem appears to be that McCann is hitting a career-high in ground balls at 50 percent clip and the lowest line drive percentage in his career around 17-18 percent.

When you do not have blazing speed to beat out ground balls it is going to hurt your numbers and it shows with McCann. If he is able to get behind the ball instead of on top of it, there is a good chance McCann can get back to the offensive numbers we saw the previous two seasons in Chicago and help carry the struggling 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.