NY Mets: 3 overreactions from the first month of the season

What a ride the first month of baseball has been. The New York Mets have faced every reason for a stoppage this season, from COVID-19 outbreaks to snowed-out games. While most teams in the MLB have played around 24 or 25 games, the Mets have played just 19, sitting at 9-10. The shortened amount of games doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty to take away from April though.

The Amazin’s have not been the team we hoped they’d be. It feels like almost every batter is in a slump, the fielding is atrocious, and they just keep losing games they put themselves in a position to win.

The Mets have had a very, very rocky start to their season, and it signals a lot about what is to come later in the year for the team from Queens.

1) The Mets are the worst fielding team in the MLB

If you saw any second of the Mets’ series against the Cubs, you will know exactly how bad the Mets defense is. In three games, the Mets recorded six errors, including four in an embarrassing 16-4 blowout loss on April 21st. The Mets were swept by the Cubs, and their fielding bares all the fault.

Three of those errors came from J.D. Davis, who is fielding like he’s never played third base in his life. Outside of his horrendous play, the infield has been… fine. James McCann has a cannon of an arm, Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor continue to be strong fielders, and Pete Alonso has made improvements as a first baseman.

The outfield is where the problem mostly lies. Dominic Smith is way out of his depths playing in the outfield. Brandon Nimmo is far better suited as a corner outfielder than he is playing center, and it shows. Michael Conforto, as always, is a below-average defender.

Put it all together, and you get a seven-run disaster against the .213 AVG hitting Chicago Cubs. Yikes.

If the team can’t take care of the ball on the defensive end, it’s not going to matter how strong their pitching is, or how hot their bats get.

Speaking of their bats…

2) The Mets have a hitting problem

No, the Mets’ hitters aren’t just in a slump. It would be strange for Michael Conforto (.219 AVG), Francisco Lindor (.203 AVG), Jeff McNeil (.204), and Dom Smith (.203 AVG) all batting poorly at once if it were only a ‘slump’. The middle of your batting order doesn’t all have a bad month at the same time without something else going on.

If it’s not a slump, and it’s definitely not that these players are bad hitters, then what could it be?

The most likely remaining option is a change in approach at the plate. Something is systematically wrong with the Mets hitters, and that does not bode well for the team going forward.

As a team, the Mets are hitting an OK .234 AVG, 13th in the MLB. The Mets have the contact, what they’re missing is power. They sit tied for last in the MLB with a .353 SLG and have the 5th worst HR/Fly Ball ratio in the MLB with just 10.9% of their fly balls going yard.

To make matters worse, they struggle to deliver with runners in scoring position. The Mets are dead last in AVG, SLG, and OPS with runners in scoring position. Because of this, they score just 3.00 runs per game, 29th in the MLB.

The Mets can’t get the deep balls to go deep enough, nor can they string together hits well enough to bring runners home. That leaves them with no way to consistently score.

Plenty on Twitter have already begun to call for the firing of Mets hitting coach Chilli Davis. Whether or not he is the problem remains to be seen, but regardless, something is very wrong with the Mets’ bats.