New York, or New Yuck? The Story of Baseball's Biggest Disappointment

When Steve Cohen bought the Mets after the 2020 season, hopes were finally up for Mets fans. The team immediately acquired big stars like Francisco Lindor, and eventually Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and many others. After a 101 win season in 2022, the Mets were primed to repeat their success in 2023. However, after 65 games, they have yet to find their groove, and sit at a measly 31-34, with things quickly spiraling out of control. Thus, it begs the question- What’s wrong?

The 2023 Mets offense has taken a slight step back from the 2022 season. As a team, their WRC+ is 12 points lower than last season, and their OPS. is .025 points lower. Despite this decrease, the Mets have still been an above average offense, but not to the elite level that they have hoped, as almost all of their star offensive players have greatly underperformed this season. While Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo have put together solid offensive seasons, the Mets have lacked production from key players such as Starling Marte and Francisco Lindor.

While Marte leads the team with 17 stolen bases and has improved in the baserunning department from his first year with the Mets, he has taken a step back in almost every other aspect in the game. Marte has an Avg. of .258, a far cry from his career Avg. of .288, and has posted the lowest OPS., BABIP, and WRC+ of his career (.309, .652, 88), and has looked like a shell of himself at the plate. Defensively he has also taken a step back, as thus far he has posted a -5 DRS, compared to his +4 DRS last season.

Unlike Marte, Francisco Lindor has been his usual self in the field, posting 2 DRS and 2 OAA thus far. However, he has fallen offensively, as he has posted a career high K% of 22.4%, the lowest BABIP of his career at .244, and the lowest WRC+ of his career at 102. Lindor has been failing to make hard contact, an anomaly from the majority of his career, and has hurt his team offensively despite already having 43 RBI thus far.

The Mets owe both Marte and Lindor almost 65 Million Dollars this season, and both have greatly underperformed. With Pete Alonso recently being placed on the Injured List, the Mets will need these two to find themselves and become key contributors to the offense.

The starting pitching for the Mets has been nothing short of abysmal this season. Their two prized free agent pickups from 2022 and 2023, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, respectively, have failed to display their ace prowess this season.

Both Scherzer and Verlander have posted their highest xFIPs of their careers and highest HR/9s of their careers. As a strikeout pitcher, Scherzer has failed to live up to this label, as he has posted his lowest K/9 of his career (9.79). Along with the lack of production from their two aces, the Mets have failed to receive any sort of consistency from the backend of their rotation, with Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill, and most importantly, Carlos Carassco.

Carassco has been one of baseball’s worst pitchers this season, posting a 5.94 ERA. Carrasco has posted the highest xFIP of his career (5.32) and the lowest K/9 of his career (5.70), and has looked like a shell of his former self. The Mets have over 100 million dollars wrapped up into these 3 pitchers, and if they want any shot at returning back to the postseason, they are going to need them to break out of their slump and return back to their forms.

The bullpen has already been subject to numerous criticisms this year by the New York and national media, so I won’t dive too far into it. But these criticisms are right, as the Mets relievers have the 4th worst xFIP in the league at 4.47, and have the highest HR/9. The relievers have been downright awful other than Brooks Raley and David Robertson, and with the season almost approaching the midway point, the other relievers will either need to start pitching better, or the Mets may start to look in other directions.

Despite all of their fallacies, the Mets still sit at 31-35, and while this is not great, they are still only 3.5 GB from the third wild card spot. With plenty of time left in the season, the Mets still have the opportunity to figure it out and embark on a postseason run.