With Spring Training moving quickly, let’s take a look at how the Mets are progressing toward Opening Day.
Opening Day for the New York Mets is less than a month away. Despite some great additions brought onto the Mets roster this past offseason, the lineup is still working on finding their rhythm.
Even though many aspects of spring training are arbitrary, these games give a good idea of how specific players look, as well as how they could affect the team during the upcoming season.
Breaking down each component of the Mets ST performance so far, here are some of the team’s strengths and weaknesses.
Offense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U03j65Wmdqs
The Mets have not been short of run support this past week with Pete Alonso hitting a rocket of a grand slam against the Nationals on Thursday and Jonathan Villar’s three-run homer on Sunday afternoon.
The team has hit in four or more runs in four out of the seven games they’ve played so far with several members of the starting lineup hitting .300 or above.
The main offensive aspect that could use some work is base running, with a few mix-ups and pickoffs recently.
Defense
Some of the defensive highlights have been Luis Guillorme’s great ability to make quick plays, as well as the addition of James McCann’s defensive catching.
The main concern as of late being Jeff McNeil’s rough game on Sunday, making three errors at third.
McCann specifically has made some great plays with a pickoff against the Nationals. The catcher also did a really great job minimizing the damage on some wild pitches when the team’s pitching was struggling.
The upside of McNeil’s fielding is when placed at second base he seems to have great chemistry with Alonso. This seems to have been giving the first baseman the opportunity to improve his defense.
Starting Pitching
Marcus Stroman had a great outing last Tuesday but sadly couldn’t bring that same energy yesterday afternoon. The long island native allowed two runs on three hits, with a walk and two errors over the three innings he pitched.
David Peterson pitched a great two innings against the nationals with a clean final line beyond a double in the first.
In Saturday’s matchup against Zack Grienke, Jacob DeGrom did what he does best only allowing two hits and a walk over his two innings pitched with three strikeouts.
Bullpen
The Mets bullpen is currently a very mixed bag with pitchers like Edwin Diaz, Aaron Loup, and Trevor May having some solid outings, and several other pitchers struggling greatly.
The main players having issues are currently Jeurys Familia, Dellin Betances, and Robert Gsellman.
Familia and Betances are both struggling greatly with their command as they can barely locate the ball. With Trevor May having the ability to be a solid set up man, the Mets should consider letting go of Betances.
Considering his high risk of injury and inability to improve his performance, despite claiming that he feels the best he has in a long time.
Farm System
Despite the Mets farm system being greatly diminished over the past few years, the current state of the organization is looking pretty great.
The majority of the players won’t be major league ready for at least three years, but pieces like Ronny Mauricio and Brett Baty have been impressive so far.
Overall
The Mets’ weak spot is yet again the bullpen if Familia or Betances are the main choices of late-inning relievers. If anything the team can figure out a good middle ground, making sure the pitchers have a contingency plan if they start to flounder.
Offensive depth is definitely there, with the main concern being that the team continues to be able to translate base runners to RBI so there isn’t a repeat of the 2020 season in that regard.
