3 harsh realities Mets fans all wish weren’t true but are

2) The Mets offense is too reliant on home runs

The narrative around the Mets offense has become the lack of hitting with runners in scoring position. Indeed a problem, this year’s Mets team is surprisingly relying heavily on home runs. This becomes an issue when you’re going against better pitching as we witnessed last weekend against the Seattle Mariners. How many of those 149 home runs (ranked sixth in MLB) have been against bad teams and/or basement-level pitching?

The Mets haven’t been completely absent against good pitchers this year. Many of the ones they clobbered in June during their hottest days were versus number one or two starters on opposing staffs. That was a much different Mets team than we’ve seen of late. This one has Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Alvarez hitting below their weight in the second-half.

In the second-half, the power bats have been much more silent. Only six different players have hit home runs with Pete Alonso leading the way with 7. The fall for Nimmo has been the most dramatic. Along with 0 homers after the All-Star Break, he has a .140 batting average to lug around.

When the Mets aren’t consistently hitting home runs, the offense suffers. Ranked sixth in round-trippers, their 574 runs scored is down at number 11 in the MLB rankings. This might not tell us too much about them. About the rest of the league, it suggests they’re finding other ways to score runs.