Mets 2017 Season Preview: Who will be the Mets’ kryptonite this season?

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Richard Gueren, Staff Writer

The Washington Nationals will be the Mets’ kryptonite this season for some unique reasons. These two teams are obviously under increased pressure as the season begins. For the Nationals, the pressure is not only getting to the playoffs, but also advancing beyond the first round of the playoffs. For the Mets, the pressure is taking advantage of the window that is still open to contend in a top-heavy National League with your young pitchers and dynamic offensive players. That will make these 19 games throughout the season very important for both ball clubs.

Quite frankly, the Nationals really played well against the Mets last season (after getting dispatched by the Mets in the previous season and helping to foist the Mets into a division crown and World Series appearance). During the 2016 season, the Mets only won 7 of the 19 matchups against the Beltway crew and literally lost control of first place in the NL East in early May. The Nationals were led in large part by the unconscious hitting of former Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy and breakout star Trea Turner. While I still expect Murphy to wreck havoc on his former team, its Turner who I can really see as kryptonite for the Mets.

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To put it simply, Turner is a stolen base machine that hits for average and gets on base. In only 73 games last year, Turner raked (.342/.370/.567) and caught the eyes of baseball. In addition, Turner swiped 33 bags (accounting for nearly 1/4 of the team’s 121 stolen bases last season). Unfortunately for Mets fans, we know all too well how poorly our pitchers and catchers can sometimes be at preventing stolen bases. The pitchers have claimed they made improvements in that category, so the games against Washington should serve as an important indicator of that prediction.

In 2017, Turner is poised to move over to his natural position as a shortstop with Danny Espinosa being shipped out to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Imagine combining that production from Turner and Murphy as well as a rebounding year from Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, and even Jayson Werth. That’s why this lineup is very capable of wrecking havoc. And I even forgot to mention newly acquired catcher Matt Wieters, who is a four-time all-star and two-time Gold Glove award winner himself. Wieters is a significant upgrade for a team that is trying to absorb the departure of Wilson Ramos, who established himself as a premier catcher last season.

The one possible area of weakness the Mets will need to exploit is the Nationals pitching and starting rotation. When healthy, the Mets rotation is just better than the Nationals rotation, which does lack depth behind its frontline players. They just don’t have those same threatening five guys that the Mets do (nor the track record the Mets pitchers have.) In addition to injury/performance concerns from guys such as Scherzer and Strasburg, I just don’t see any depth in the staff.

Additionally, the Nationals’ quest to find a closer has taken some odd turns in recent weeks. When they failed to bring back Mark Melancon at the going rate, they proclaimed that the job would be a competition among in-house candidates like Blake Trienen, Shawn Kelley, and Oliver Perez. Then, the team announced the acquisitions of Joe Blanton and Joe Nathan. Obviously, the possible suspension of Jeurys Familia on domestic violence charges may slightly hurt the Mets in the later innings when they play the Nationals in the beginning of the year. But again, when the Mets have all of their guys healthy and ready to go, there should be no doubt about who is better in terms of pitching.

However, on balance, I still believe the Nationals will bedevil the Mets in 2017. Even if the Mets pitching staff can once again establish supremacy, the depth and versatility of that lineup will serve as a constant burden. Additionally, I believe that the surplus of arms in their bullpen now will probably hand the Nationals their solution at closer.