The Mets have been without Brandon Nimmo all week and traded away Mark Canha and Tommy Pham. But those three absences should not be used as an excuse for why the Mets were nearly shut out for the last two nights by an historically bad baseball team in the Royals. The offense, after putting up six runs on Tuesday in a losing effort, has looked as absent as at any point in 2023. Today’s 9-2 loss somehow felt even worse than the score indicates.
Sure, it’s hard to score runs when DJ Stewart, Rafael Ortega, Jonathan Arauz, and Danny Mendick are anchoring the lineup, but the rest of the Mets’ lineup, the ones who aren’t only on the team because a fifth of the team was traded away, aren’t hitting either, or at least not hitting when there are men on base.