As disappointing as the New York Mets 2023 season has been, they do lead Major League Baseball in one important category: hit-by-pitches.
For the second consecutive season, no team in baseball has been plunked more than Buck Showalter’s club. And it’s starting to become an issue again. On Tuesday, the Mets saw back-to-back young players—Mark Vientos and Francisco Álvarez—get plunked in a 9-3 win over the New York Yankees. Álvarez was hit in the hands and was immediately removed from the game. Fortunately for the Mets, the X-Rays on his right middle finger came back negative.
The following day, Jeff McNeil was hit squarely in the back by a Carlos Rodón fastball. While the former All-Star pitcher was apologetic and it obviously wasn’t done intentionally, McNeil threw his helmet down in frustration. It begged the question if the Mets need to start doing something about this to protect themselves, intentionally or not.
The Mets entered Thursday leading the majors with 69 hits by pitches. It wasn’t even 24 hours since McNeil had been hit right between the numbers and wouldn’t you know, the Mets All-Star second baseman was hit again.
It was only the first inning of the first game of a four-game set between the Mets and Washington Nationals.
“And McNeil wears another one,” Mets play-by-play voice Gary Cohen said. “Can you believe this? I mean teams have just been pitching him so consistently inside and McNeil gets plunked for the 14th time. That ties him for the National League lead.”
Never one to hold back, Ron Darling, a former pitcher himself, had enough.
“I guess I should address it. Let me address it this way,” Darling began during the bottom of the first inning on SNY’s broadcast. “Do I think that [Nationals pitcher] Josiah Gray was trying to hit McNeil? Absolutely not. Do I think most of the time the Mets get hit by a pitch, the pitcher’s trying to hit them? I do not.
“But more importantly, sometimes you have to pay as a team for your pitcher’s inability to throw the ball over the plate. So, it’s not like you’re trying to get revenge on a pitcher because you think he hit your hitters. It’s not about that. It’s about if you’re trying to search for velocity over pitchability, and you don’t care about plunking a hitter because you don’t have control inside, payment is due.”
"It is about if you are trying to search for velocity over pitchability, and you don't care about plunking a hitter because you don't have control inside, payment is due." – Ron Darling ⚾️🎙️https://t.co/oKuslKQnkc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 27, 2023
Darling’s opinion contrasts with those of the Cardinals broadcasters, Chip Caray and Brad Thompson, who wanted to let starting pitcher Miles Mikolas have free reign to send a message after a freak accident on Thursday. Ian Happ, the Chicago Cubs No. 3, accidentally hit St. Louis catcher, Willson Contreas in the head, on his follow-through. Contreras, who was bleeding from the head, was removed from the game, but not before he embraced his former teammate.
Happ broke an “unwritten rule” so to speak, so the Cardinals broadcasters were more than OK with Mikolas throwing two pitches meant to send a message. The first one following the injury was high and tight. The next pitch hit Happ in the backside.
Mikolas was ejected and the announcers were incredulous. There are a lot of ways to send a message, intentionally throwing at players is not one of them. You can agree to disagree with Darling’s point of view, but at least he didn’t advocate for a player to be hit intentionally over something that wasn’t done with any ill will
Cohen asked Darling if there was a way of exacting payment without hitting another team’s hitter on purpose.
“I think there is,” Darling replied. There are many times in a close game or a game that you needed, that you couldn’t afford to hit a hitter, so you spent a lot of time in their kitchen, moving their feet, brushing them back, all of those things. Now, if you have velocity over pitchability, you can’t do those things.”
The Mets would get hit by two more pitches throughout Thursday’s game.
The game has changed since Darling has played, but one thing has remained a constant: protecting your teammates. Right or wrong, Darling is not advocating for the Mets pitchers to go head hunting but feels that they should protect their hitters. As he said last season when this was getting out of hand then too, whether it’s intentional or not no longer matters.
The Mets will have to decide how they want to play this. But if Darling was calling the shots, you could expect some opposing team’s hitters to be paying the price for their pitcher’s lack of control. That’s just the nature of the game, even if it’s fewer and further between in 2023.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter]
