New York Mets look good, but have a glaring defensive weakness

The most glaring weakness for the New York Mets heading into the 2020 season appears to be the overall team defense.

The New York Mets have made improvements during the offseason, most of the players look healthy, and fans are excited for this promising season to begin. Even the rest of the baseball world is expecting the Mets to be a playoff team in 2020.

Things appear to be going great for the Mets. Still, it’s important to recognize their most glaring weakness: the defense.

The Mets haven’t been a decent defensive team in years, and it’s been getting worse. They have had a cumulative DRS of -93 since 2015, which is good for second-worst in all of MLB behind only the Baltimore Orioles’ -105. What makes this even more concerning is that the Orioles are historically bad, and it’s embarrassing for the Mets to be associated with them. Here’s a breakdown of the Mets’ defense by some players:

Catcher Wilson Ramos was never known for being good on the defensive end, but he was especially bad this year, so much so that drama notoriously ensued between him and starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard.

In his first season with the Mets, Ramos posted a career-low -9 rSZ, which stands for Strike Zone Runs Saved. This attributes a run value to a catcher getting strikes called. He was below average in rSB (Stolen Base Runs Saved, which measures a catcher’s ability to throw runners out and prevent stealing attempts to begin with) with -1. He also tied his career-worst in framing with -7.6 as well as passed balls with ten.

Tomas Nido is a much better defensive catcher than Ramos but is an abysmal hitter and cannot realistically play a role in helping the Mets get to the playoffs.