When (if?) you add a player like Carlos Correa, he’s going to be hitting near the top of your lineup. You want and need him to get as many plate appearances as possible.

That’s going to push players down in the lineup. Whether it be fan favorites or more established players, you lost a spot in the lineup to someone who could very well be the Mets best hitter.

It’s something that happened to Jeff McNeil last year. Buck Showalter demurred to the more established and veteran players mostly batting McNeil in the second half of the lineup.

It was a mistake and unforced error. It’s something which cannot and should not be repeated in 2023.

It’s really hard to fathom why Showalter had his best hitter last season towards the end of the lineup. Seriously, as shown on Baseball Reference, here was McNeil’s batting order positions last season:

McNeil hit fifth, sixth, and EIGHTH more than he hit third. Remember, this was the National League batting champion. That can’t happen.

As we have seen studies how to optimize lineups to lead to more runs. Hitting your best hitter eighth is nowhere near a valid approach. The same goes for sixth.

Certainly, next year, assuming Correa will be a Met complicates matters. He’s spent most of his career batting third, but he was predominantly the second hitter for the Minnesota Twins last year. We can assume he will be there next year.

We also know Brandon Nimmo will be hitting lead-off. Showalter won’t change that even with there being good evidence the lineup should be McNeil-Nimmo.

If you have the lineup as Nimmo-Correa, that’s where you begin to run into some complications. Analyzing it, with that setup, McNeil should hit third.

There’s doubt Showalter will do that because he has Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, and Starling Marte.

Alonso is the prototypical clean-up hitter. An old school manager like Showalter won’t move him from that spot.

Lindor is the highest paid player. He’s a veteran, leader, superstar, and future Hall of Famer. With that typically comes deference from the manager and organization.

Finally, there’s Marte. He’s the fiery leader of this team. Many agree his injury is one of the reasons for the Mets collapse.

Certainly, it’s not all numbers in baseball. You have to account for team dynamics, and you have to put players in a position where they feel they will succeed.

In a sense, this is why the Mets hired Showalter. Ideally speaking, it wasn’t to get him to defer to the veterans, but to get him to get them to buy in on what’s best for the team.

That would have McNeil in the top half of the Mets lineup next season. Whether that happens remains to be seen.