Mets: Three biggest concerns heading into the 2020 season

The Bullpen

It feels like every year the Mets bullpen is one of the team’s biggest worries to begin the year. In 2019, the two big acquisitions to the pen were Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia, but unfortunately, neither of them performed close to the same level as they did the previous season.

Despite their struggles, the Mets did find consistency from other players however, such as Seth Lugo and Justin Wilson, who were the ones charged with finishing games for New York as a part of their late-season run.

Those two can’t be expected to do it alone for the entire season however, and the Mets are going to need their other pitchers to carry the workload as well.

This means banking on Diaz and Familia to rebound, as well as free agent signee Dellin Betances, who missed all but one game last season recovering from multiple injuries with the Yankees.

While those three all have talent and have each been very well-regarded pitchers the majority of their major league careers, there’s no guarantee that they all regain their former form and consistency, and if they don’t, if the Mets hope to make a playoff run, this will be a position they will need to upgrade come the trade deadline.

The Outfield’s Health 

Last season, due to a number of factors, the Mets ended up starting more infielders in the outfield than the natural outfielder they already had on the major league roster.

In fact, the only outfielder to last the season without missing significant time was Michael Conforto.

Due to injuries to Yoenis Cespedes and Brandon Nimmo, as well as Juan Lagares struggling and Keon Broxton getting DFA’d, natural infielders like Jeff McNeil, JD Davis, and Dominic Smith ended up getting the majority of reps in the outfield for New York.

While they all performed admirably, the Mets also ended up having to call up a lot of journeymen veterans such as Carlos Gomez and Rajai Davis to help provide depth due to injures in the infield as well.

McNeil or Davis is expected to start the 2020 season as the starting third basemen, so that’s one less option for them and having to constantly shove infielders in the outfield is never the ideal situation, especially for a contending team.

Hopefully, natural outfielders like Cespedes and Nimmo can remain healthy the entire season, and but both players have had a recent history of injuries, and like with the bullpen, there are no certainties as to what New York will get out of them in 2020.

Robinson Cano’s Performance

The centerpiece of the Mets trade with the Seattle Mariners prior to the 2019 season in which the Mets dealt one of their top prospects, Robinson Cano‘s performance last year was arguably the biggest disappointment for New York.

Cano was set to be the centerpiece of the team’s lineup, but the former All-Star second baseman had arguably the worst season of his career, posting career lows in home runs, RBI, batting average, and missed over 50 games of the season due to injury.

The Mets still will have him under contract for four more seasons, and as things currently stand, he will be the most expensive position player on the team during that time.

The Mets are banking on 2019 being a fluke for Cano and hope that he will rebound for the team in 2020. Cano finding some of his old magic again would be a difference-maker for New York and could bring their lineup to a higher level.

There is no guarantee this happens, however, but with his current salary and a full no-trade clause, Cano will be a part of this team going forward. I am optimistic that a player of his caliber and consistency can at the very least improve off of his 2019 season, but his capacity to play at a high level will remain one of New York’s biggest concerns in 2020.

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