April sours
Slow start typical for Grandy — and so is snapping out of it
CURTIS Granderson knows that, unlike a well-known giraffe that just gave birth, he never will be positively associated with the word “April.” “Most of my springs have been pretty good,” the Mets’ outfielder said Sunday morning at Marlins Park, “Then, once the season gets rolling around, that’s not necessarily the same way. For whatever reason, I don’t know. I’ve been trying to understand it and figure it out.” The Mets’ oldest player, hitting leadoff because his teammate Jose Reyes is performing even worse than he, proceeded to go 0-for-5 as the Mets lost their third straight to the Marlins, 4-2. These Mets, 7-6 after their rough weekend and kicking off a long homestand Tuesday night with the lousy Phillies, should be f ine. Their starting rotation can be elite and their bullpen gets a big boost Thursday with the return of Jeurys Familia from his 15-game suspension. Their offense, if still too homer-happy for many folks’ taste, features players with strong track records up and down the lineup plus the rising stock that is Michael Conforto. Their best chance at attaining their potential does not come by benching Granderson for Conforto, a surprisingly popular notion floated out there in the faniverse. It comes in letting Granderson figure it out as he always does, eventually.
Granderson, 36, now owns a ghastly .174/.235/.261 slash line in 12 games, with no home runs in 46 atbats. In the Grapefruit Leag ue, he sl a s hed .275/.339/.510 with three home runs in 52 at-bats, lending credence to the idea he hasn’t suddenly fallen off a cliff, but rather he just can’t solve the season’s initial stanza. For his career, he is .238/.331/.460 in April, his second-worst month; in August, he’s a .231/.327/.440 hitter.
“I’m not sure if it’s the transition from spring to the beginning of the season,” Granderson said. “If it’s the timing of the games, more day games to more night games. The weather. The inconsistency of playing [time in spring training]. ... I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s a different view [when you’re hitting]. You have fewer things out there in spring training and you have more things during the season.”
If he sounds like a man fishing for excuses, you must be new to the Grandiverse. Granderson is unique, among the ballplayers I’ve covered, in his ability to detach himself from his own travails and discuss them in a friendly, analytical manner. He knows he’s hurting the team with his results. He also knows that wallowing in those results carries no value.
“I feel like regardless of whatever the situation is, good, bad, there’s no reason to ever get too high or too low. Especially with baseball,” he said. “There’s an opportunity for the next day to be completely different, both good or bad. Everyone’s like, ‘Dang, you did this, why didn’t you celebrate?’ Or ‘You did this, why didn’t you throw your bat? Why didn’t you argue?’ or whatever. I just always looked at it: If it changes something, then I’ll start doing it.”
Sure enough, if you saw Granderson deliver perhaps his biggest hit of the season, a triple Saturday night off Marlins lefty starter Adam Conley that tied the game, you saw him coolly gesture toward his teammates in the first-base dugout. He didn’t go wild.
“Look at that situation,” he said. “We tied the game. We still had game left to play. I still had to come across and score. And then as we got a lead [on a Conforto sacrifice fly] and extended it, yeah, things are comfortable and exciting, and the next thing you know, we’re tied up.”
Had the Mets held onto that lead, there would be less heat on everyone. Instead, Granderson finds himself a hot topic. He’s cool with it.
“I’ve glanced at stuff people have said over the course of my career,” he said, smiling. “At one moment, people are hating you. And then at the next moment, you’re the best player ever. It’s really interesting how rollercoaster fans get.”
The Mets should ride out the Granderson roller coaster. They know the destination always has justified the journey. No matter how often you experience it, though, it’s a hell of an opening drop.