Over the past 12 games, the Mets have quietly pieced together a stretch that looks a lot better on the scoreboard than it did a few weeks ago. They swept two series, dropped only one, and even with two shutouts in three losses, the lineup has actually been more productive since Juan Soto went down. Francisco Lindor has been driving the whole thing, Bo Bichette has caught fire, Luis Torrens has turned into a real force, and a few bats that were dragging earlier are finally moving in the right direction.
Luis Torrens has been the loudest surprise. He has played in seven of those 12 games, taken about half the plate appearances of the everyday regulars, and still leads the club with 10 RBIs over that span.
Eight of his hits turned into a ridiculous line, and half of those hits left the yard. That’s how he ended up with a 332 wRC+, the best mark on the team by a mile.
He also drew four walks and scored six runs.
Francisco Alvarez hasn’t matched that kind of explosion, but he’s been at least solid. In his last 41 plate appearances, he posted a 91 wRC+ and collected seven hits, including two doubles and a home run.
The plate discipline has been notable too: he walked five times over the past two weeks, a much better rate than he has shown at any point in his career. The tradeoff has been strikeouts, and plenty of them.
He leads the team with 18.
Bo Bichette earned the other fireball in this stretch, and it was easy to see why. In 53 plate appearances, he put up a 197 wRC+, led the team with 18 hits, scored seven runs, drove in nine, and walked six times.
The headliner was his 5-for-5 night in Pittsburgh during the Mets’ 11-1 win over the Pirates. Since that August 9 performance, he has gone hitless in only one game.
Lindor has been right there with him. He has 11 hits, tied for second on the team behind Bichette, and he leads the Mets in runs scored with 11 and walks with seven.
He has homered three times and knocked in seven. With Juan Soto out, Lindor has been the center of the offense in August, capped by the walk-off hit in the Mets’ comeback win on Saturday.
Jared Young has also stayed hot for a second straight meter, posting a 174 wRC+ in 45 plate appearances while continuing to play close to every day. He matched Torrens with 10 RBIs over the last two weeks and is second only to Lindor with eight runs scored. Of his 15 hits, six went for extra bases, including a home run and two triples.
Carson Benge has surged into the green in a big way. He owns a 189 wRC+ in 48 plate appearances and has been as noticeable in the field as he has at the plate, with highlight-reel catches and outfield assists.
Offensively, he has driven in eight runs and scored eight more, while matching Young with 15 hits. Five of those hits went for extra bases, including a triple and three homers.
Not everyone has joined the party. A.J.
Ewing’s second-half slide has continued, and his 61 wRC+ over the last 12 games reflects that. He managed eight hits in 54 plate appearances, good for just a .174 average, and half of those hits went for extra bases.
But he still hasn’t homered since July 8, and the recent stretch has been rough: no RBIs in two weeks and 14 strikeouts.
Jorge Polanco has been stuck too, though the bar was low enough that a 62 wRC+ counts as progress. He picked up five hits in 26 plate appearances, including two extra-base hits.
One of them was a home run on August 5 that helped the Mets beat the Guardians in extra innings. That was his only run scored and one of just two RBIs in the span.
It’s still far from useful production, but there are at least some signs of life.
Marcus Semien and Luis Robert Jr. have also moved in the right direction, even if neither line jumps off the page. Robert joined Lindor, Bichette, Benge, and Young as one of the Mets’ double-digit hit guys over the past 12 games.
He had eight hits, two of them homers, and one of those home runs came on the same day Bichette went 5-for-5. Bichette got the spotlight that day, but Robert drove in four runs in that game and had only one RBI across the rest of the stretch.
His overall line still came out to a 105 wRC+.
Semien hit two home runs as well, finished with seven hits, scored five runs, drove in six, and walked five times. That added up to an 84 wRC+.
Brett Baty has settled somewhere between bad and ordinary. His 82 wRC+ in 29 plate appearances reflects a part-time role that has shrunk in part because Young keeps producing.
Baty went back-to-back with Polanco in the August 5 win over Cleveland, then five days later hit the first grand slam of his career in Atlanta to help the Mets beat the Braves 8-5. That slam accounted for four of his five RBIs in the span.
He also walked three times and scored four runs, but he had only four hits total.
There were also a couple of new names in the mix. Cristian Pache arrived after the Mets opened up an outfield spot by trading Tyrone Taylor at the deadline.
Pache has gone hitless in his first six plate appearances, though he has scored a run. Gabriel Arias was added after Cleveland designated him for assignment following the Guardians game.
Eric Wagaman was optioned to Triple-A after going 1-for-2 with a run scored when the Mets brought Arias in. Arias went 0-for-5 in his short Mets stay, and now he may already be a one-and-done here too: the Mets designated him for assignment earlier today, just nine days after acquiring him.
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