There is a track record that is much better than Curtis Granderson has shown in his first year in Queens throughout which he has become another example of a Mets’ free-agent signee gone wrong.
And, with the Jason Bay fiasco fresh in the New York National League Baseball Team’s collective memory, it’s likely nothing more than a rhetorical question when asking why the Wilpons seem so gun-shy when it comes to doling out dollars over the winter.
The lefty-swinging Granderson, who has been simply dreadful since the All-Star break and only marginally better than that since Opening Day, started in right field for the 21st straight game and 31st time in the last 32 games Thursday night against Atlanta lefty Mike Minor.
There he was again despite carrying a .175 batting average (21-for-120) with a .267 on-base percentage and .258 slugging percentage since July 25, and despite the Mets’ need to know about young outfielders such as Matt den Dekker and Kirk Nieuwenhuis.
And why does anyone — OK, make that everyone — have the sneaking suspicion that the three years at $47 million remaining on Granderson’s four-year, $60 million contract are the more important numbers relating to manager Terry Collins’ lineup card?
Granderson did get one of the Mets’ four hits in the club’s meek 6-1 surrender to the Braves, an infield hit sandwiched between a pair of strikeouts and a routine fly out. It was a defeat that prompted Collins to observe, “We’re going pretty quietly right now. That has to change.”
The Mets seem to have found a first baseman in Lucas Duda and a center fielder for the ages in Juan Lagares. Watching this young man play the field is one of life’s simple pleasures, the way it must have been when the young Willie Mays roamed the Polo Grounds.
But right field has become kind of a sink hole. It’s one the Mets never envisioned and one the Mets literally cannot afford.
Granderson can be insightful when he so chooses, but chose not to be before this game, dragging out the “it’s just baseball being baseball” cliché, among others, when asked about his prolonged slump.
“I don’t think there’s any change in approach I need to make,” said the 34-year-old with the .217/.322/.368 slash line that resembles a typographical error. “You go out there, put balls in play and your luck switches.
“You go through streaks in this game, but the cool thing about baseball is that you get to go back out there the next day with the chance to change the outcome.”
You get that chance if you’re a veteran with a multi-year deal, that’s for sure, and sometimes with the Mets beyond reason if you’re a veteran even on a one-year free-agent contract like Chris Young.
Collins said in addition to “mechanics he has to work on,” Granderson needs to become somewhat more selective at the plate. The right fielder is seeing 4.17 pitches per plate appearance, only slightly down from 2012, when he saw 4.27 pitches per during his 43 home-run season for the Yankees.
“When Grandy was swinging good, he was seeing better pitches to hit and his approach was a little better in so far as [not being so] aggressive at the plate,” the manager said. “I think you are who you are, and Grandy has always been a pretty aggressive guy, but he needs to get his pitch to hit.
“Everybody thinks he has to hit home runs, but to be a good hitter other stuff comes into play.”
Granderson has hit 16 homers, second on the club to Duda’s 26. But his fly ball/home run ratio is 7.8 percent, the lowest of his 10-year major league career. In 2011, when Granderson hit 41 home runs for the Yankees, his ratio was 17.7 percent. The next year when he clocked 43, the ratio was 18.3 percent.
The home-run swing meant for the short porch in The Bronx hasn’t translated to the more challenging environs in Queens. Maybe he and David Wright can play in the parking lot where Shea used to stand.
Granderson is putting the ball in play, his strikeout ratio improved from his time in The Bronx. And his batting average on balls in play is .253 as compared with the career .305 he carried into this season, so perhaps Granderson has been hitting into some bad luck. The Mets sure hope so.
Because when they signed Granderson, they expected him to be an anchor in right field. Just not this kind.