At the time of the trade deadline, the Mets were 57-50, tied for second in the NL wild-card race and just a half-game behind Atlanta for the top spot.
Since then, they had lost nine of 14 before Friday’s 7-3 win over the Marlins and have slipped out of a wild-card spot.
On Friday, president of baseball operations David Stearns acknowledged the recent shaky play over the previous two weeks.
“We’ve played very inconsistent baseball,’’ Stearns said. “I believe in this roster. I think we’ve got a roster that works. We know to get to the playoffs, we have to play better than we have in the recent stretch.”
That includes cutting down in the walks department, which was especially damaging in Thursday’s ugly loss to Oakland, when the Mets walked a season-high 11 batters.
That’s part of a yearlong struggle, since the Mets have walked the most batters in the National League.
Sean Manaea and Jose Butto combined to walk just two Friday night.
“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “With some of the guys in the rotation and on the staff, I feel like at times we’re nibbling way too much and not attacking hitters, not trusting their stuff and not letting the defense play.”
But pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said it was more complicated.
He argues the high walk rate that, at 3.90 per nine innings, is 29th in MLB — ahead of only the lowly White Sox — is a byproduct of the staff’s various arsenals.
“We have some guys that have swing-and-miss stuff and sometimes you walk batters when you do that,’’ Hefner said.
He noted that because the Mets are fifth in the majors with a 9.01 strikeout per nine innings rate, the walks are somewhat less of a concern.
And Hefner also added many of their pitchers have tended to walk batters throughout their career, so it’s not something that’s crept up just this season.
“Our approach hasn’t changed at all,” Hefner said. “We’re definitely not trying to nibble or not pitch to contact.”
What he did hope the team improved upon was making better pitches in certain situations.
“We say when we’re behind in the count, throw your best strike pitch and when you’re ahead, throw your best miss pitch,” Hefner said. “That’s the part we haven’t done the best part with.”
But they’ve walked plenty of batters throughout the season, which Hefner said is bound to happen when you have pitchers that don’t throw hard, like Jose Quintana and Paul Blackburn, and can’t afford to throw it down the heart of the plate.
And when the team was playing well, Hefner said the amount of walks the team issued wasn’t considered a problem, since they were usually able to limit the damage that comes with adding extra baserunners.
“I’m not giddy about the amount of walks, but you can’t just tell guys not to walk people,’’ Hefner said.
Adam Ottavino, a veteran of many solid pitching staffs, said he was mystified by the numbers.
“It definitely sucks,” said the right-hander, whose walk numbers are fine this season. “I don’t get it though. We’re not doing anything wrong in terms of what we’re telling guys. Everybody understands they need to get ahead in counts.”
“Regardless of the reasons, we can’t walk that many guys,’’ Stearns said. “You can’t consistently win baseball games with that many free passes.”
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