New York Mets final report card grades for the 2020 season

Jared Hughes

Hughes performed much better than his 4.84 ERA indicates. He began the season pitching very well. This moved him up in the bullpen hierarchy, and Luis Rojas used him pretty much every day. Towards the end of August, he started to struggle and I believe that was due to him just being exhausted. Then in September, he was just an innings eater. There was one game he pitched 3.2 innings and threw 60 pitches. When used properly, I believe Hughes can be a good middle relief arm, as he was in the beginning of this season.

Grade: C+

Jake Marisnick

The Mets traded for Marisnick this past offseason and gave up a solid, young, controllable reliever in Blake Taylor. The trade was terrible. Marisnick played well when he was on the field, but he only had 34 plate appearances for the Mets. In those at-bats he did slash .333/.353/.606 with two home runs. He also is an outstanding defensive center fielder. Had he played more, the Mets might’ve considered bringing him back in 2021. But I believe the Mets should look for a more proven full-time center fielder and move Brandon Nimmo to a corner outfield spot.

Grade: C

Miguel Castro

The Mets acquired Castro at this year’s trade deadline. As a Met, Castro allowed four runs in nine innings. Not too bad. But he pitched a lot worse than that number of runs allowed indicates. Castro allowed 11 hits and walked eight in his nine innings of work. This is just way too many base runners. Castro was often bailed out by other relievers to get out of jams. He displayed electric stuff as he struck out 14 batters per nine innings as a Met. In order for him to be that high leverage arm Brodie said he wanted him to become, he will have to limit the base runners.

Grade: C

J.D. Davis

J.D. got off to a good start in 2020, which featured a 13-game hitting streak and solid play at third base. However, as the season went on, Davis just did not hit well. Davis ended the season with a .247/.371/.389 slash line with six home runs and 19 RBI. The disappointing feature in Davis’ game this year was his power production. He had just 15 extra-base hits in 190 at-bats. For a guy who hit third most of the time, that’s just not going to cut it. Also, his numbers with RISP were atrocious. Davis hit just .167 with RISP which explains the 19 RBI. To me, it seemed like pitchers were throwing nothing but high fastballs to him late in the season and he was missing every single one. Not having hitting coach Chili Davis in person this year really affected him and hopefully he can make that adjustment next year. In order for Davis to play regularly, he will have to hit, as his defensive ability is subpar.

Grade: C

Pete Alonso

There were times that Alonso looked lost at the plate this year. His bar was set so high due to his production last year, and I think his early-season struggles affected his morale. He just didn’t seem like himself all year. While it seemed that Alonso was at his worst this season, he did still manage to hit 16 home runs. He was on a 43-home run pace. While that isn’t 53, that’s still very close to it. Alonso slashed .231/.326/.490 this year and those numbers looked better than they were much of the year. A last week surge really helped boost his numbers. His BABIP was extremely low this year and that shows he got pretty unlucky at the plate. I have a lot of confidence Alonso will be closer to his 2019-self next year and this year was an outlier.

Grade: C-

Todd Frazier

Frazier was acquired at the trade deadline to try to give the Mets an option against left handed pitching. He slashed ,224/.255/.388 with two home runs and five RBI as a Met. He struck out in 16 of his 49 at bats. While he didn’t produce much at the plate, he was a big presence in the locker room for the last month of the season. He probably won’t be back next season.

Grade: C-