NEW YORK — Mets owner Steve Cohen woke up a little grumpy on Wednesday morning.
Five straight losses and falling below .500 for the first time since May 5 will do that.
“It’s hard to understand how professional hitters can be this unproductive,” Cohen tweeted.
“The best teams have a more disciplined approach. The slugging and OPS numbers don’t lie.”
The Mets rank 26th in MLB with a .380 slugging percentage after Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss to the Giants in San Francisco. Cohen’s team is only two spots better in the OPS standings (.690). To Cohen’s point, each of the top seven teams in slugging percentage have a winning record, while the top eight in OPS also reads like a potential list of playoff teams.
Manager Luis Rojas said he has not talked to Cohen about the tweet but it was brought to his attention, and he understands where the owner is coming from.
“I’m not a Twitter guy but I’m aware of the tweet from Steve,” Rojas said before Wednesday’s game in San Francisco. “Listen, we’re working really hard every day. His reference to the offense is one of the areas where we’re working really hard to improve on. That’s my reaction to it. It’s what’s happening right now.”
Several Twitter users pointed out the irony of Cohen hammering his team for being undisciplined while also recently trading for Javier Baez, one of the most swing-happy players in the league. Among hitters with 200 or more plate appearances this season, Baez has swung at the fifth-highest percentage of pitches outside the strike zone. His 47% chase rate certainly won’t help on the discipline front. No other Met who’s made 200 trips to the plate has a chase rate above 38.9%, the figure belonging to Kevin Pillar.
The best teams do have a disciplined approach, though. The Padres, Dodgers, Giants and Yankees are the four teams that swing at the lowest percentage of pitches outside the strike zone. All four of those teams are in a playoff position as of Wednesday morning.
“We all have to be held accountable for the team’s performance,” Rojas said. “We’re all in this. It doesn’t single out one player or one coach. At the end of the day, we have to win games.”
“It’s not a work ethic thing,” said hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum. “They’re in the cages, they’re trying to do their homework”
Rojas was also asked if there’s any possibility that the tweet could light a fire under his slumping players.
“Yes it does,” Rojas plainly stated. “A lot of the guys know Steve here. We understand the message. This can definitely have a positive impact on the team.”
He went on to say that he did not feel the need to bring the players together for a team meeting in response to the tweet.
“Not as a group, because guys will talk about it organically,” Rojas added. “A few of the guys have already said what I’m telling you guys and just getting to work. We have a game to play and we know where he’s coming from. Steve is no stranger to the guys, they know how he is and they’re taking it the right way.”
Last week, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that “Cohen’s Twitter presence is a source of both concern and amusement for certain rival executives, some of whom will text each other his tweets in a ‘Can you believe this?’ sort of manner.”
“Can you believe this?” is also a fitting assessment for how the Mets season has unfolded. At 59-60, the Mets are now 4.5 games behind the NL East-leading Braves and 6.5 back in the wild-card race.
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With Deesha Thosar
