Which Mets Hitters Will Carry Spring Hot Streaks North?

Curtis Granderson is one of the Mets’ swinging a hot bat this spring. (Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports)

If you haven’t heard, amid all the buzz about Matt Harvey’s comeback, Zack Wheeler’s surgery and the lack of a bullpen lefty, there’s more to talk about this spring than the Mets’ pitching staff.

The Mets have been hitting the ball well and scoring runs at an impressive clip all spring. In fact, heading into the final week of exhibition games, the Mets are 16-11 with a team batting average over .300.

The mystery now is how many of these guys who have had torrid springs will sustain hot bats once they hit the cool of the northern U.S. when the regular season starts in D.C. on April 6?

Possibly spuured on by the arrival of his former Yankees mentor, new Mets batting coach Kevin Long, Curtis Granderson is batting over .450 to lead a hit parade of eye-popping Mets’ offensive stats that also includes new additions Michael Cuddyer and John Mayberry Jr. combining for eight spring home runs and each batting well above .300.

Coming off his Gold Glove season in center field, Juan Lagares, who batted an under-the-radar .281, keeps disproving doubters who wonder about his offensive ability. Lagares has 10 extra-base hits and a .367 batting average this spring.

Four Mets catchers have seen significant playing time this spring, and the one who’s outhit them all is the one nobody knew about, lefty-swinging Johnny Monell, who has four home runs and a .341 batting average and whose bid to make the team is blocked mainly by the organization’s high regard for the defensive value of backup catcher Anthony Recker, who’ll never hit more than .230 but who has some legitimate power.

A pair of non-roster invitees battling for a spot as a utility infielder–and possibly to start at second base if Daniel Murphy’s hamstring isn’t ready–are both crushing the ball, too. Matt Reynolds–who is considered a prospect–and Daniel Muno–who is not considered one–have both stung the ball at a .375-plus clip.

Wilmer Flores, anointed the starting shortstop despite a solid minor league bat not yet translating into major league productivity, is batting .333 with seven extra-base hits.

And the captain, David Wright, has already hit half as many home runs this spring (four) as he hit all regular-season last year, when Wright played with a bad shoulder and had trouble catching up to fastballs even in hitting counts.

There have been very few players on whom the Mets are counting who have had discouraging springs with the bat. But we’ll never know how much of it is a mirage until the season starts. It’s been an unseasonably hot spring in Florida, even while it has been a brutally cold and unseasonable March in much of the nation. Will that just make the shock of adjusting to colder weather even more traumatic for these sprightly springtime sluggers?

And dare we mention that with the first three games of the real season coming against the Washington Nationals and their preposterously deep and talented pitching staff, the Mets could open the season in a deep slump after their first series even if they are swinging the bats properly.