MIAMI — Last season, the Mets hit .246 against left-handed pitching. It was neither good nor bad, it was exactly in the middle, the 15th-best mark in the league. Or the 15th-worst mark, if you’re more of a glass-half-empty type of person. The .717 OPS was also toward the bottom half of the league.
The struggles against southpaw pitching were well-documented last season and alarm bells sounded all over again this weekend after the Mets managed only two hits off Miami Marlins left-hander Jesus Luzardo on Friday night in a 2-1 loss to the Miami Marlins at loanDeport Park. They answered some questions over the weekend with two wins against lefties, but this particular storyline might be one that follows the Mets through the early part of the season if the trend continues.
The Mets possess a very balanced lineup but the 2023 lineup is almost identical to the 2022 lineup. The club made a few tweaks to try and combat this problem. Right-handed DH Darin Ruf is no longer on the Major League roster and the club signed Tommy Pham in January to hit lefties. It’s going to be a test for the Mets in the coming days, with Wade Miley is slated to start for the Brewers in Milwaukee on Tuesday and Luzardo again at Citi Field next weekend.
There will be a lot of focus on Pham, who had a huge day at the plate Sunday in the Mets’ 5-1 win over the Miami Marlins, going 3-for-4 with a homer, three RBI, a run scored, a walk and a stolen base. Pham did not have impressive numbers at the plate during spring training, but an adjustment made to his contact lenses while in Miami this weekend helped him see the ball much better than he did during the Grapefruit League season.
Pham suffers from an eye condition called keratoconus, which is a thinning of the cornea. The cornea can get so thin that it bulges outward into a cone shape and causes blurred vision. He was diagnosed in 2008 and underwent a procedure to stop the degeneration.
“I’m the guinea pig in the big leagues for my eye condition,” Pham said. “But for the most part, we’ve had it under control.”
Contact lenses help keep the condition under control.
“It’s complicated,” Pham said. “I saw a doctor in Iowa, she created some lenses for me and they’re great. This is probably the best I’ve seen on defense in years, but they still needed a little fine-tuning. The doctor here fine tuned them for me.”
The Mets will have to contend with some top left-handers in the division. They’ll see Luzardo and Trevor Rogers plenty of times this season. The Atlanta Braves have Max Fried and Jared Shuster and the Philadelphia Phillies have Ranger Suarez, Matt Strahm and Bailey Falter in the rotation and Gregory Soto and Jose Alvarado in the bullpen.
If Pham can continue hitting lefties hard as a reserve outfielder then maybe the story will go away.
Eduardo Escobar will not be in the lineup Monday when the Mets face the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field. The Mets plan to move some position players around to keep them fresh during a tough month, but the day off might come at a good time for the third baseman, who is 1-for-16 with seven strikeouts to start the season.
To make matters worse, Brett Baty is off to a hot start with Triple-A Syracuse, hitting .357 with a 1.257 OPS and two home runs, which might put a little pressure on the vet.
Manager Buck Showalter said Escobar’s lack of production is nothing to be concerned about since it’s a small sample size.
“Four games into the season, I think everybody is trying to find their way a little bit and get their footing,” Showalter said.
Kodai Senga joined Masato Yoshii as the only other Japanese-born pitcher to make his MLB debut in his Mets debut. Yoshii earned the win April 5, 1998, against the Pittsburgh Pirates with seven shutout innings. He became the 64th pitcher in club history to make his MLB debut with the Mets.
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