Mets: Three biggest concerns heading into the 2020 season

PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 20: Robinson Cano #24 of the New York Mets poses during the team workout at Clover Park on February 20, 2020 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 20: Robinson Cano #24 of the New York Mets poses during the team workout at Clover Park on February 20, 2020 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – MAY 19: Michael Conforto #30 and Brandon Nimmo #9 of the New York Mets celebrate after Nimmo scored the game winning run on a sacrifice fly ball hit by Wilmer Flores in the ninth inning in an MLB baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 19, 2018 in the fog and rain at CitiField in the Queens borough of New York City. Mets won 5-4. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Michael Conforto; Brandon Nimmo /

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.