Jay Bruce has the simplest explanation possible for the roller-coaster ride the Mets have taken since departing spring training in Port St. Lucie on March 25.
“It’s a baseball season,” Bruce said.
The excitement of a franchise-best 11-1 start has long faded, replaced by the worldly reality the Mets have flaws and suddenly are fighting for their survival, even in a division that may not have a clear-cut heavyweight.
They will arrive at Citizens Bank Park to face the Phillies on Friday having lost eight of nine games, and wondering when the offensive surge needed to sustain them will arrive.
Privately, club officials remain optimistic the correct pieces are in place to contend for the postseason. They point to the “strong” pitching that has carried the club and the track records in the lineup that suggest the Mets should be averaging better than the two runs that have become the norm during this skid.
“I think they generally have the right pieces,” a major league talent evaluator said. “They just have to play better.”
The list of underachievers begins with Michael Conforto, who emerged as the team’s only All-Star last season. The 25-year-old, who was dropped to seventh in the batting order in the Mets’ loss to the Reds on Wednesday, is just 3-for-26 (.115) in May, with one homer and one RBI. Overall he has a slash line of .191/.330/.303 in his return from shoulder surgery that cost him the final month of last season and most of his offseason.
Adding to the lineup woes, Todd Frazier was placed on the disabled list this week with a strained left hamstring, and the Mets still are trying to find production at catcher — where Devin Mesoraco has become the starter, after arriving in a trade with the Reds for Matt Harvey.
And for this weekend the Mets will be without Bruce, who will be placed on paternity leave as he awaits the birth of his second child. Another important piece, Yoenis Cespedes, is battling discomfort in his right quadriceps that is slowing him in the outfield.
Manager Mickey Callaway compared the team’s offensive doldrums to the rut many of his pitchers endured last season with the Indians.
“It’s tough right now,” Callaway, the former Indians pitching coach said. “I went through this last year with Cleveland. Our pitchers were the worst pitching staff in baseball for a month-and-a-half, and I was grinding it out every day to find out what was wrong, and it took us a while and when we did we had the best pitching stats in the history of baseball.
“We’re better than this. We are going to start figuring it out.”
With a scarcity of potential options at Triple-A Las Vegas and teams generally hesitant to trade this early in the season, the Mets (18-17) likely will have to improve from within, and that just isn’t limited to the lineup.
In three starts, lefty Jason Vargas has been a disaster, posting a 13.86 ERA. And reliever Anthony Swarzak has been on the disabled list since the first week with a strained oblique and rib injury. Recently transferred to the 60-day DL, he is not eligible return until early June.
“We’ve just been losing close games and not playing as well as we can and not everybody is clicking yet,” Bruce said. “You can hope all you want, but you have to continue to work and we’ve been working. We have been coming here every day and preparing and I am still completely on board with what this team is capable to do and what we’re going to end up doing.”
