MLB

New hitting coach hasn’t done much for Mets

Blame the hitting coach, not the hitters.

Five weeks after firing hitting coach Dave Hudgens and replacing him with Lamar Johnson, general manager Sandy Alderson has concluded the Mets players are most responsible for the team’s anemic scoring output.

The Mets are averaging 3.9 runs per game under Johnson. When Hudgens was fired on May 26, the Mets were also averaging 3.9 runs per game.

Met’s notes

“The conclusion I would draw at this stage, consistent with what I suggested at the time we made the change, was sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” Alderson said before the Mets’ 6-5 triumph over the Rangers.

“It doesn’t mean there won’t be some change in the future that one can measure. We haven’t seen an uptick. I don’t think that has anything to do with L.J. I think probably it has more to do with the players we have.”

Alderson was asked if he regretted setting 90 wins as a goal for the season. During a staff meeting in spring training, the GM challenged the Mets to reach that plateau.

“I didn’t set it as a goal,” Alderson said. “What it was, it was an attempt to change the mindset and begin to think about things in terms of some specifity and what have you.”

Ninety wins wasn’t a goal?

“It’s always a goal, but when it was articulated it tended to be a mindset and I’ve said that more than once,” Alderson said. “I think everybody should understand how it was intended, notwithstanding that it was a private conversation.”

The next 10 days, according to Alderson, will largely determine if the Mets will be buyers or sellers heading into the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline.

“We’ll learn a little bit more between now and the All-Star break, but certainly we like the team as it’s developing,” Alderson said. “That in and of itself would make us reluctant to move players at the deadline. We’re practical as well. We’ve made deals at the deadline and there is no reason that we would hesitate to do that if we felt it was the right thing.”

Dillon Gee threw 75 pitches Friday night for Class A Brooklyn against Aberdeen in a rehab start and allowed one run over six innings. Alderson said a determination will be made in the next few days if Gee will rejoin the Mets to start later this week or wait until after the All-Star break, allowing him to get extra work in the minors.

The Mets had a video tribute and moment of silence for former general manager Frank Cashen, who died Monday at age 88. The team also began wearing a uniform patch bearing Cashen’s initials.