New York Mets players lack the electricity from the 2019 season

The 2020 season hasn’t started off well for the New York Mets. One noticeable difference is the lack of electricity on the field from the players.

There was something special about the 2019 New York Mets. Maybe this wasn’t the case all year long. But after the All-Star Break, the team drew a whole lot of electricity from each other and the fans.

This year, they don’t have the luxury of feeding off the atmosphere at Citi Field. Try as they might, the cardboard cutouts don’t provide the same amount of electricity as the breathing ones do.

The Tristate area experienced many power outages this week from the tropical storm that blew in. A lot of people are still without power. A tree even fell on the shed in the backyard of the home I’m hoping to close on in September.

More from Rising Apple

• NY Mets Monday Morning GM: The middle is no place you want to be
• NY Mets News: Marcus Stroman sees “potential fit” with the Angels
• NY Mets were too “seek” and not enough “destroy” last winter
• NY Mets: 1 trade target to consider from each 100-loss team
• NY Mets: Top 12 free agents the team should look to sign this winter

The Mets didn’t wait until Isaias came in to experience their own lack of power. Throughout the early part of the season, which is now a fourth of the way complete, they’ve looked lackluster and low energy.

Surprisingly, it’s not the same issues plaguing this team. The bullpen has been relatively solid with big innings coming from some unlikely candidates. I’m looking at you, Chasen Shreve.

The starting pitching, while inconsistent, has also been productive enough. Rick Porcello turned things around with a solid third start on the year. Overall, I have few complaints about the starting five—especially considering they are without Noah Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman.

It’s the offense that has hurt the Mets most. Their lack of hitting with runners in scoring position is painful. They are leaving a 40-man roster on base each evening. You can’t win games without capitalizing on opportunities like those.

Pete Alonso’s early slump has been most detrimental to the team’s success. The reigning home run champion is off to an unexpectedly awful start. His slump in the middle of the order has held them back multiple times already.

However, he’s not the only culprit. I won’t give any specific statistic to explain it but let’s leave this at Dominic Smith leads the team in RBI. He has had less than half as many at-bats as many of the starters.

Last August, Citi Field was rocking. A playoff atmosphere returned to the ballpark in Flushing. Things were looking promising.

Even if the playoffs weren’t just around the corner, the team looked like it had made the right strides toward something better.

Maybe it would need to wait a year. All offseason long, it looked like the team could head into 2020 with much better end results.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case in the early yet not-so-young 2020 season.

Want your voice heard? Join the Rising Apple team!

Write for us!

The lights are working fine at Citi Field. The electricity on the field, though, looks out.