Tommy Pham tearing the cover off the ball – The Denver Post

PHOENIX — The Mets might have signed Tommy Pham as a platoon option, but halfway through the season, he’s hitting the ball so hard and so well that the team can hardly afford to take him out of the lineup.

Since May 28, Pham has been hitting .355 with a 1.057 OPS, the third-best OPS in the Major Leagues over that span. Since May 18, he’s gone 12-for-25 with runners in scoring position. He hit six home runs last month. His rise coincided with the Mets’ slide, but Pham has been the one constant in the Mets’ lineup over the last month.

“His swing decisions are good and his swing is really good,” said hitting coach Jeremy Barnes. “He can get disconnected at times and just kind of get forward. When he doesn’t do that, he hits the ball harder than anybody in the league.”

Barnes isn’t wrong.

Pham is getting the ball in the air and hitting it hard. His average exit velocity is in the 95th percentile, his expected batting average is in the 98th percentile, his expected slugging is in the 95th and his barrel rate is in the 89th. His average exit velocity of 93.5 MPH is 10th in the league.

The Mets were able to harness his natural swing and adjust the angle at which he is hitting the ball.

“The biggest thing is we’ve just been trying to keep him behind the ball,” Barnes said. “Coming into the season and early in the year, he was hitting some ground balls and kind of going forward a little bit. We’re just letting his natural ability play and trying to keep him behind the ball. We’re paying attention to attack angle and the rest is kind of history. He’s done amazing.”

The Mets might be trending upward heading into the All-Star break, but should they revert back to playing the way they were in June when they went 7-19, Pham might end up being the club’s best offensive trade chip.

But right now, they don’t want him going anywhere. They like what he brings defensively in the outfield and on the basepaths.

“[His confidence level] is through the roof,” Barnes said. “He’s really even-keeled and doesn’t play the roller coaster game. … He’s in a great spot right now.”

The Las Vegas native has been so impactful for the Mets that manager Buck Showalter hasn’t wanted to talk about it out of fear of jinxing the outfielder.

“Do we have to talk about him?” Showalter said Thursday at Chase Field ahead of the Mets’ series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks. “The game is real slow to him right now. He’s spittin’ on pitches, reading the ball early.”

LETTING THE KIDS PLAY

Francisco Alvarez’s exuberant home run celebration Wednesday night wasn’t necessarily met with opposition from the Mets and the team’s on-field staff, but it was met with some consternation. Infield coach Joey Cora could be seen telling him to calm down as he rounded third base. His message to the rookie: What if the Mets hadn’t won? Then the celebration might have been a bit premature and maybe even a bit much.

Showalter didn’t see a problem with it.

“If you’re looking for something to get upset about, you can do that on almost every pitch,” Showalter said. “Things that were condoned or not condoned, they’ve changed over many years.”

The 67-year-old manager has evolved his own thinking on subjects like this. Showing emotion and playing with flair might have been frowned upon at one time in baseball, and still is in some organizations, but the old-school manager has some new-school thinking.

This echoes what former Mets and Yankees right-hander David Cone recently told the Daily News about how Showalter has evolved as a manager. He’s happy to let players be themselves and show their personalities on the field.

“They are much more emotional and show more emotion,” Cone said of the younger players coming up through the game. “He was around Billy Martin and the Yankees, which is a pretty conservative organization. They played it by the book, almost military style with the haircuts and the way you wear your uniform. Even back to the days of not being able to turn your cap around to wear it backwards. From those days just from dealing with the personalities, he’s really evolved.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Brett Baty sat out Thursday with a sore left hamstring. The rookie third baseman woke up with it sore and was able to work out pregame without pain, but the Mets wanted to exercise caution. Luis Guillorme started in his place and hit ninth.

Left-hander Jose Quintana will throw a simulated game on the final game of the All-Star break. He’s expected to join the rotation soon thereafter.

()