Folks, the Mets are not a good baseball team right now. Can they turn things around and show us they’re some semblance of the 101-win squad we watched in 2022? We’ll eventually find out, but it’s not looking good at the moment.
And sure, it’s only May 10th as I sit here to write this. And yes, the Atlanta Braves got hot after a slow start to erase a 10-game deficit in the National League East standings last year. But that’s more of an exception than the rule.
New York heads into Wednesday’s action with a 17-19 record. That’s not great, but it could be a lot worse. What’s more concerning is what’s happening within the division. They’re eight games out of first place, which is occupied by the Braves. Plus, this stretch of seemingly winnable games has barely included any winning at all.
There are many things going wrong. I spent some time during Monday’s off day to talk about three specific things that are grinding my gears: first-inning troubles, not much production when the bases are loaded, and a lack of length from the starting rotation.
The Mets have played nine games so far during the month of May. A starting pitcher has completed five innings just three times. They’ve pitched into the sixth inning on two of those occasions.
And when we’re talking about quality starts (at least six innings and three or fewer earned runs), those are even rarer. The only one that’s happened this month was Kodai Senga’s six-inning performance on May 5th. It was just the fifth quality start produced by the Mets’ rotation this season.
Quite a few hurlers have racked up that many on their own at this point in the year:
22 MLB starting pitchers in 2023 have the same or more quality starts by themselves as the Mets have as a team (5) pic.twitter.com/BLlwlw12tR
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) May 10, 2023
That’s not good, folks. General manager Billy Eppler spent most of his winter completely reloading the pitching staff, and to rave reviews at the time. It looked like they even had enviable depth! But now? Who knows what it all means?
While the Jose Quintana situation was unfortunate, it happens. But Scherzer and Justin Verlander already dealing with injury issues is a risk New York decided to take upon signing JV to a two-year deal. It hasn’t worked out so far, but at least it’s only May, right?
If this had to happen at some point in the year, it’s better now than in September (like it was in 2022). Unfortunately, the Mets struggling so badly is starting to put doubt in everyone’s minds about whether they’re really a good team or not. There’s only one solution to fix this — they need to go out and actually win games. Especially ones they’re expected to win.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
