The New York Mets are the defending National League Champions and came into this season with extremely high expectations because of their dominant young pitching staff. Last season the Mets struggled with offense during the first half of the season but turned it around in a major way after the trade deadline.
This season the Mets got off to an extremely slow start offensively again, and that had many Mets fans worried about whether the offense would be the downfall of the team. The Mets, though, won two of three in Cleveland over the weekend and scored at least five runs in each game which has quieted some of the doubters.
Before the series began manager Terry Collins decided to make a tweak to his lineup by moving Michael Conforto to the three hole. Before Friday night, Conforto was batting sixth and probably swinging the bat better than anyone in the lineup, so Collins decided to take advantage of that by moving him up and allowing him to get on base for guys like Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda.
Conforto has gone 5-12 with three RBI in his first three games batting third this year, and because of that Collins plans to keep having him bat third for the foreseeable future, but only against righties. Against lefties Collins not only doesn't plan to have Conforto bat third but he also doesn't plan to have him in the lineup at all.
Before the season started Collins committed to platooning Conforto and Juan Lagares, with Conforto facing righties and Lagares facing lefties. It makes sense to want to get Lagares in the lineup against lefties considering he is the best defensive center fielder on the team by a long shot and he hits lefties well, but it shouldn't be at Conforto's expense. It could be argued that Conforto is the Mets' best hitter, and if he is not their best hitter, he is one of the top two.
The 23-year-old outfielder is also a guy that Collins has said will hit lefties well when he gets an opportunity to face them consistently, which makes the logic of sitting him against lefties even more baffling. If Collins really wants to get Lagares in the lineup against lefties it should be at Curtis Granderson's expense considering Granderson has never really hit lefties well and backed that up by hitting .183 against them last season.
The point here isn't that Collins is wrong to want to get Lagares in the lineup against lefties; it's all about Conforto and what he brings to the offense. Moving him up to third in the lineup sparked the offense, and the kid has proven in his short time in the majors that he can and will hit. Collins should quit avoiding exposing Conforto to lefty pitchers and instead should stick him in the third spot in the lineup every day regardless of which arm the opposing pitcher throws with, because at this point it's clear that he is one of, if not the best, hitters on the team.
