The New York Mets surprised a lot of people by winning the National League last season. The team would like to return to the World Series again this year, but to do that, they will need to make a few improvements before the trade deadline. If the Mets can make significant trades before the deadline, they would be the favorite baseball expert picks to win the National League.
The Key to New York’s success last season was the team’s core of young pitchers who proved to be ready for the big time. The team also got solid production from players like second baseman Daniel Murphy, who played well during the playoffs.
The team’s young core helped them get past the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, but they fell short in the World Series against the Kansas City Royals.
In the offseason, the Mets were able to resign trade deadline acquisition Yoenis Cespedes. However, the team lost Murphy in free agency to their NL East rivals, the Washington Nationals. The Mets made up for the loss of Murphy by acquiring Neil Walker from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a trade by sending Jon Niese to Pittsburgh.
The Mets also signed Asdrubal Cabrera in hopes of fixing the holes in their lineup.
Despite their offseason moves, the Mets are currently 35-29, and 2 games behind the Nationals in the NL East. They are currently holding the first Wild Card spot in the NL, but have some competition from the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Mets still have one of the best pitching rotations in the NL, with players like Noah Syndergaard, who is 7-2 with a 1.91 ERA, Steven Matz, 7-3, with a 2.71 ERA, Jacob deGrom, 3-3, with a 2.82 ERA, and Matt Harvey, 4-8, with a 4.66 ERA.
Despite their dominant rotation, the Mets bullpen is one of the worst in baseball, and their relievers often blow leads that cost the team games. If manager Terry Collins keeps his starters in games longer because of their bullpen woes, he risks the starters getting injured or having tired arms by the time the playoffs start.
The Mets currently have only two relievers with ERAs lower than 3.25. Closer Jeurys Familia, has been dominant so far with 21 saves and a 3.48ERA.
The bullpen isn’t the only cause for concern that the Mets have, their batters have also struggled scoring runs at times this season. The team currently doesn’t have any batters hitting over .300, which is something that needs to improve if the team has any hopes of returning to the World Series.
The Mets are 27th in baseball with a .235 batting average, and 28th in runs scored with 240. The team’s current batting numbers need to improve because they won’t win too many games hitting that poorly no matter who they have pitching for them.
Despite their current woes, the Mets still have time to turn things around because we haven’t reached the halfway point of the season yet. If they are unable to start playing better, they don’t have to worry about losing the World Series because they won’t even make the playoffs.
