JUPITER, Fla. — Last summer, after Jeff Francoeur was acquired from the Braves, Mets manager Jerry Manuel asked him to try to steal more bases. Francoeur, though, couldn’t quite handle that.
“Jerry wanted me to,” Francoeur said yesterday, “but I just don’t know how.”
Francoeur says he never learned how to steal bases with the Braves, explaining that it wasn’t part of Atlanta’s offensive philosophy. But it is part of Manuel’s plans. So this spring he’s told Francoeur he wants him to run more, and now the Mets right fielder is trying to learn how.
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“It’s a different mindset,” said Francoeur, who didn’t need to steal last night when he hit a two-run homer off Ricky Nolasco in the Mets’ 5-2 Grapefruit win over the Marlins.
“In Atlanta, we obviously weren’t as aggressive on the basepaths. It was more kind of that wait and hit the three-run homer.
“And Jerry and [new third base coach] Chip [Hale] want me to run. They want me to do it.
“So I’m hoping. It’s got to be the right situation, the right count, the right thing. But I’d love to try to run more and do that. Because I know I can. It’s just a matter of getting comfortable and doing it.”
Francoeur has only stolen 15 bases in his five-year career — and he only has 30 major-league attempts. He also never has swiped more than six bags in a season. But Manuel believes it’s essential for the Mets to be baserunning threats since they play their home games at Citi Field, which isn’t hitter-friendly.
The Mets are a good basestealing team anyway, with Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Luis Castillo all threats to steal between 20 and 60 bases. Manuel wants even more runners.
“I think everybody in our ballpark has to be somewhat of a threat,” Francoeur said. “We can’t afford to play station to station. We’re going to have to run at the opportune times, and if they give it to us, we’ve got to take it.”
How is Francoeur learning how to steal? He says his baserunning lessons are being taught by everybody from Manuel, Hale and bench coach Razor Shines to Met players who are threats like Angel Pagan and Gary Matthews Jr.
The most valuable lesson he’s learned so far is staying down when pushing off his foot. It truly is an education for Francoeur, because as he said, “I’ve never really been able to do it a lot, so it wasn’t one thing that I just worked on.”