Mets manager Carlos Mendoza raised some eyebrows when he said his team is unable to make adjustments after Wednesday's loss to the Guardians.
Some took it as the skipper calling out his coaches and the players for not being able to figure out Guardians starter Gavin Williams, who was two outs away from pitching a no-hitter. It was the culmination of a terrible homestand where the team went 1-5 and have lost eight of their last nine games.
And a large part of the slump has been the Mets' offense. Since the All-Star break, their team's OPS is .639, last in MLB, and their .213 batting average ranks 29th in baseball.
Despite those numbers, the president of baseball operations, David Stearns, voiced his confidence that the offense will turn itself around.
"I believe in our guys," Stearns told the media prior to Friday's series opener against the Brewers. "Clearly, everyone’s frustrated. Players are frustrated. At times, I’ve been frustrated. But I believe this is a good offensive team, I believe in the process we have in place and I’m confident we’re going to see that going forward."
Stearns was then asked about the team's hitting coaches and whether they should be to blame for the team's offensive struggles.
"No. I have confidence in our hitting coaches," he said. "They have track records and lead and put together quality offenses. This is, at times, baseball. It will drive you crazy when you have talented players that go through stretches like this. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a lineup where we’ve had stretches where we haven’t performed up to our capabilities. It’s frustrating and everyone is working as hard as they can to turn this thing around. And I think we will."
Mendoza was asked about the coaches before Friday's game, as well, but the Mets skipper echoed Stearns in giving them a vote of confidence.
"I think they are good at what they do," he said. "Making sure they get the message across. Extremely hard workers. Day in, day out not only the physical work but putting together gameplans, starting pitchers, working on the mechanics. There’s a lot that goes behind the scenes. They are really good at what they do."
Stearns did acknowledge Mendoza's lack of adjustment comments from Wednesday, saying that it's a reasonable criticism and there have been discussions, but it's an "easier said than done" situation. But he believes in the veteran players to make those adjustments in-game, especially from the top of the lineup.
Over their last 15 games, entering Friday, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo have gone a combined 48-for-232 (.206) with nine home runs and 68 strikeouts.
That inconsistency has put the Mets behind the eight ball in a lot of their games, but the team remain confident they will bounce back.
"I don’t have a silver bullet answer for [the inconsistency]. We’re not the first good team to have periods in the season where we’re not clicking," Stearns said. "I understand it’s unique when you have the quality of players at the top to go through some struggles at the same time. I completely understand why that raises some questions and why that raises frustration. But at the same time, we have to trust that these are really good players. They believe in themselves. As an organization, we certainly believe in them, and I have full faith that they are going to snap out of it. And we’re going to see a good offense."
"We got really good hitters. That’s where it starts," Mendoza said. "They’re really good players, they’ve done it before. When you’re going through it, it gets noisy. When you look at our players, when you look at that locker room there’s a lot of talent there. They’ll get out of it."
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