Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
(Queens, NY) – Entering the 2024 MLB season, many Mets fans were quick and united in their refrain.
“The starting pitching is going to stink,” they’d tell you. And after seasons in which names like DeGrom, Scherzer, and Verlander pitched atop the Mets rotation, it was easy to understand their mindset.
After Kodai Senga went down in spring training, even more so. But entering play on Monday, the Mets team ERA is 3.71 – good enough for 12th best in the entire league.
Plus, in the modern MLB landscape, starting pitching is increasingly diminished in its importance. Most of the time you’re crossing your fingers for five – or at-the-most six innings – from your starter.
That highlights the bullpen’s importance. It’s also an equation that’s translated to disaster for Mets teams in recent years. In 2023, New York’s bullpen ERA was 4.45 – only eight team’s had a higher such figure. This year, the Mets’ bullpen era is 2.90 through the season’s opening month – that ranks 4th overall – only the Yankees, Guardians, and Mariners have a lower bullpen ERA.
That’s the “good” in the Mets bad and ugly. The “bad” is that the Mets’ pen had already thrown 130.1 innings – just outside the top 10 most thrown innings for any teams’ bullpen. So, what has been a strength for New York has already faced a heavy workload. Really the pitching has been sold – and better than that at times. The “ugly” is easy. The Mets core offensive players continue to post downright ghastly numbers.
Pete Alonso is batting .206 with a paltry .295 on base percentage. Brandon Nimmo has a typically-high OBP at .375, but he’s batting just .221 with only 3 HR on the season. Jeff McNeil’s batting average is .231 – a far cry from the year he won the batting title at .326 – something that seems impossible to fathom at this point. He also has a negative WAR and only 1 HR. Francisco Lindor, who’s struggles at the plate have been well documented, at least plays a gold glove shortstop and answers the bell everyday. Even still – his .207 BA, .280 OBP, and just 4 SB would be hard to live with from Rey Ordonez, let alone the middle-of-the-order hitting Lindor.
Plus, what the numbers don’t tell you, your eyes surely will.
This is just a group of mediocre offensive players who on the right team would be a 4th, 5th, or 6th, best contributor. Alonso will get his numbers at the end of the campaign – all while completely disappearing for weeks on end. Lindor is basically the same hitter in that respect. So is Nimmo. There’s no one hitter who has the ability to carry the lineup for say an entire month or two. It’s beyond time to reorganize, shuffle the deck, and see what the next Mets’ era will bring.
Just a simple request: but it’d be great to have a middle of the order threat who routinely bats .275 or higher. Batting average may seem old hat, but it’s still relevant because getting a hit instead of an out will always matter in baseball.
Alonso will likely be resigned long term, because the Mets fan is enamored with his power. And really that’s likely fair considering top-end power is still hard to come by. But the first basemen can’t be the centerpiece of this offense going forward. That much has been established. And guys like Nimmo and McNeil are similar – decent players with some versatility – but not middle of the order guys.
Mets fans deserve the ability to get excited when their team is coming up to bat. It’s a thing that’s happened before in baseball history.
