A pair of issues have plagued the Mets for much of this season: poor hitting with runners in scoring position and shaky defense in the infield.
President of Baseball Operations David Stearns said Friday the team needs to improve in both areas.
While noting he believes success with runners in scoring position can be “random,” Stearns added, “With that being said, we have not been good in that spot over the course of the year and more recently over the last 10 days [or] two weeks.”
He said the players “are extremely aware of this, and sometimes you wonder, ‘Is this a good thing or a bad thing to be as aware of this as they all are?’ ”
Either way, it’s something they’ll need to improve upon.
They survived again without a hit with runners in scoring position in Friday’s 4-2 win over Colorado, going 0-for-2 but getting three homers — two from Francisco Lindor and another from Starling Marte.
Another flaw in the team has been its infield defense, where it has some of the worst metrics in baseball.
Of the “uncharacteristic miscues,” as Stearns called them, “I think we will clean [them] up. They’ve cost us a couple games. We understand how important every single out is.”
Francisco Alvarez was in the lineup Friday against a lefty, even as his struggles this season have been especially apparent versus southpaws.
Entering Friday’s series opener against the Rockies at Citi Field, the catcher was just 2-for-16 with no extra-base hits, with a .301 OPS against lefties, as opposed to a .744 OPS this year against right-handers.
He went 0-for-3 Friday.
Alvarez has typically been worse facing lefties than righties in his career, but not to this degree.
It’s part of an overall poor start to the season, which Stearns said was due in part to the catcher missing most of spring training with a fractured hamate bone following an offseason in which Alvarez rebuilt his swing, calling him “a player that made a very significant swing change.”
“He got off to a late start and is probably fighting himself a little bit to this point,’’ Stearns said. “He hasn’t produced at the level he’s accustomed to producing, but is working really hard to continue to refine his swing to get it to a place he feels really comfortable with. We all expect to see better production going forward.”
Carlos Mendoza brushed off the suggestion Alvarez has been bad against lefties and said his rough start was more a product of not hitting well when facing high velocity.
Alvarez’s poor numbers against fastballs have certainly been an issue this year, something the catcher has tried to address as he works to improve his play with his new swing.
With the Mets beginning a stretch Friday night of 10 straight days without an off day, they intend to insert a sixth starter into the rotation, with Paul Blackburn likely going against the Dodgers in Los Angeles after coming back from right knee inflammation.
As they wait for the injured Sean Manaea (oblique) and Frankie Montas (lat) to get healthy and make their season debuts in the rotation, Stearns said Friday the rotation would continue to go back and forth between a five- and six-man rotation, depending on the schedule and the pitchers’ workloads.
Montas has made two rehab starts with Class-A Brooklyn and Stearns said the right-hander is still on pace to be back in the middle of June, while Manaea — who faced hitters for the first time Thursday since his injury — remains behind him.
Manaea is expected to face hitters again before beginning a rehab assignment.
The Mets named Lew Sherr as their new president of business operations on Friday.
Sherr is the CEO and executive director of the U.S. Tennis Association and oversees the U.S. Open. Sherr replaces Scott Havens, who stepped down from the role this week. … Chris Devenski returned to the Mets bullpen Friday after being recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.
The right-hander replaced Brandon Waddell after the lefty was optioned to Triple-A after pitching five innings in relief of Griffin Canning in Wednesday’s loss to the White Sox.
