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Curtis Granderson’s Reunion With Former Hitting Coach Will Produce Bounce-Back Year For New York Mets

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By @mturnerny

Curtis Granderson New York Mets

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The first year of a four-year, $60 million contract didn’t go quite as well as anyone planned, for neither Curtis Granderson nor the New York Mets. Two consecutive 40-home run seasons had the Mets hoping they would bring some power to their lineup. However, they were quite disappointed as Granderson only mustered half as many. In addition to his 20 home runs, Granderson hit .227/.326/.388 with the Mets, far below his .257/.338/.477 career averages. Granderson, however, will have something in 2015 that he didn’t have last season, and that’s his former New York Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long.

In their three-plus seasons together (Granderson played only 61 games due to injury in 2013), Granderson transformed from a triples hitter to a home run hitter. Obviously Yankee Stadium played a large part in that, but it was also Long’s assistance in Granderson’s swing. He saw there was power there and helped Granderson unlock it. His average took a bit of a hit but nothing else really did. His strikeouts, walks, runs, even stolen bases all remained pretty consistent as with his time with the Detroit Tigers. Plus, his RBIs skyrocketed. Perhaps when he moved across the boroughs, to Queens, he felt he had a lot of weight to carry in the Mets’ less impressive lineup which caused him to under-perform and get away from the hitter he really is. Who knows?

While new (again) hitting coach Long can’t give any excuse for Granderson’s below-average performance, he already told the media that he’s seen some things in Granderson’s swing that he doesn’t like. For one, he says his hands move too much prior to the pitch, which causes them to be in poor position too often. A fix as simple as keeping Granderson’s hands steady could correlate to many more line drives, more power and possibly more home runs.

Obviously, Long won’t be Granderson’s one-on-one coach and will have to divvy up his time between all players, but a lot of people are expecting big things from their reunion. With a healthy and strong performance by David Wright, plus another good season by Michael Cuddyer, some of the stress comes off of Granderson, who will likely be hitting sixth. Lucas Duda has taken over cleanup, and Granderson will just need to be a consistent hitter who can drive in Duda and Cuddyer when they’re on base. It’s still not a 2011 Yankees lineup, but it’s better than the 2014 Mets.

A moved-in fence, a better lineup and a much-needed reunion could have Granderson in line for a huge bounce-back season. Expecting 40 home runs may be a bit much for the 34-year-old, but something better than a .220 average and 20 home runs would be nice — and expected.

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