Pinik starting to rediscover bat control
If Joe Panik had played to his career numbers on the back of his baseball card, the Giants likely wouldn’t have released him this month.
Only nine games into his Mets career, the second baseman has rediscovered some of the bat control that made him a tough out at the start of his major league career.
“We’re just working on staying short to the ball and compact with my swing,” Panik said of his sessions with hitting coach Chili Davis and his assistant Tom Slater. “Just try to get back to the hitter I’ve been in the past and not try to do too much. Chili is like, ‘Use your hands and be short to the ball,’ and we have really been working on that and [Sunday] I really felt it.”
Panik collected three hits in that game against the Royals and will take a .333/.379/.444 slash line in his week-plus since joining the Mets into Tuesday night against the Indians at Citi Field.
Signed as a free agent to give the Mets a dependable presence at second base with Robinson Cano sidelined by a torn left hamstring, the 28-year-old Hopewell Junction, N.Y. native is showing he belongs in the middle of a postseason race. “Wow, he has been terrific,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “I think you have a lot of confidence with him handling the bat, he’s putting together great at-bats, the defense has been solid, and we are getting a lot of production out of him. We stuck him in the No. 2 hole and it seems like he’s thriving there right now.”
The experiment Panik batting second was necessitated somewhat by injuries that sent Jeff McNeil to the IL and J.D. Davis to the bench in recent days. The Mets are hopeful Davis’ barking right calf will allow him back into the starting lineup Tuesday.
“I’ve gotten used to hitting all over the lineup,” Panik said. “When I first came up, I hit in the No. 2 spot. If you’re hitting in front of Pete [Alonso] that is definitely a place you want to be. But obviously we’re going to be getting some guys back and wherever I am asked to be in the lineup that is where I will be.
“We’ve got some boys that can really hit here. I’m fortunate to be on this side now. I had been watching from afar this year, just seeing Pete and Mike [Conforto] and J.D. is coming on this second half and Jeff [McNeil] is a hit machine. We’ve got some young guys that can really bang the ball.”
Panik spent essentially his entire career playing with one shortstop, Brandon Crawford, but says he’s quickly meshed with Amed Rosario.
“You never know what to expect, but Rosie, he’s very athletic and he has good hands and we’ve been on the same page communication-wise,” Panik said. “Everything has been great.”
For somebody who played on a World Series winning team with the Giants in 2014 and then returned to the postseason two years later — which included a wild-card game victory over the Mets — this feels like the right time of year. Panik could very well fit the mold of Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe, veteran players with playoff experience who arrived to contribute during the Mets’ pennant-push in 2015.
“This is what you want and what you play for,” Panik said. “I have been fortunate enough to have gone through the playoffs and the playoff stretch before. I know I want to be here. This is what you play for: the late-August, September push and it’s going to be fun going back home.”