Mets: Three biggest concerns heading into the 2020 season

While on paper, the New York Mets seem like a well-rounded team, they do still have a few concerns heading into the 2020 season.

Five years removed from playing in the World Series, the New York Mets have had a tumultuous few seasons. Since that run in 2015, when fans thought this was the start of something big, they earned a Wild Card berth the following year before finishing with a record under .500 in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

The Mets 2019 season, however, felt like a turning point. It started off rocky, with Yoenis Cespedes being ruled out for the year, and the newly acquired Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz struggling throughout the year, but the team battled through it, with young players like Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil and Amed Rosario leading the charge, leading the team to an 86 win season.

Under the leadership of first-year manager Luis Rojas, the team looks to continue to develop their young players and build on their 2019 success and hopefully, make a playoff run at the conclusion of their 2020 campaign.

However, Mets fans are well aware to enter each season cautiously, as in baseball, anything can happen and while New York has a well-rounded team on paper, there are still a few uncertainties with it.

Here are the three biggest concerns for the Mets going into the 2020 season.

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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