NY Mets: 2021 reasons why the 2021 season failed

The 2021 New York Mets season was a failure in so many ways. The Mets were expected to make the playoffs — and even spent 91 days in first place of the NL East.

Yet, the playoffs came, and once again, the Mets were just spectators watching on TV, just like you and me.

Not every reason can fit in this article, but here’s a small sample of 2021 reasons why the Mets failed in 2021.

92 — The number of innings pitched by Jacob deGrom
There is no pitcher in baseball better than deGrom. There is no player on the Mets better than deGrom. He is simply the best, no ifs ands or buts about it.

deGrom was in the midst of a historic year when he got hurt, putting up a 1.02 ERA and 0.554 WHIP in the first half of the season. The problem was, it was only the first half. He made just 15 starts, threw just 92 innings and didn’t step on the mound after the All-Star break. When he last pitched on July 7, the Mets had a 4.5 game lead in the NL East. A month later, they were one game back. Just a week after that, the Mets were in third place, and the season was realistically all but over.

The 2021 Mets went as deGrom went. When he went down, so did the Mets.

2 — The number of games started by Noah Syndergaard
Syndergaard was never expected to pitch a ton in 2021, but he was still expected to at least be somewhat of a contributor. Instead, he threw two total innings — that’s it.

It’s not his fault, he simply took longer to recover from his torn UCL than was expected. It happens, everyone recovers differently, and you can never really know how any person’s body will react.

Unfortunately for the Mets though, they needed Syndergaard badly. The team was ravaged by injuries (see above and below), particularly to the starting pitching. If Syndergaard was healthy, he could have been a huge part of this team. The Mets could have really, really used Thor. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out that way.

19 — The number of different pitchers who started games
Ah yes, more injuries to the starting pitching. I’m sure everyone remembers the four games Jared Eickhoff started, but did you know he was just one of 19 different people to start games for the Mets in 2021?

Seven different people reached double-digit starts, with Marcus Stroman (33), Taijuan Walker (29) and Tylor Megill (18) leading the way. There were a halful of relievers who were used as openers, with Aaron Loup and Miguel Castro being the only primary bullpen arms to do so more than once.

Some other people who made starts for the Mets that you might have forgotten about Corey Oswalt, Jordan Yamamoto and Robert Stock, the last of whom has a really great Twitter page, highly recommend.

At the end of the day, the Mets had little to no consistency in the rotation. It’s hard to win with that.

421 — Combined days spent on the injured list from the opening day starting 9
Ok, this is the last part that has to do with injuries, I promise.

Of the nine players who started for the Mets on Opening Day — the eight fielders and the starting pitcher — they spent a combined 421 days on the IL, and not one of them had an injury-free season.

Here’s a reminder of the lineup the Mets trotted out on Opening Day, and how many days each of them spent on the IL: Pillar (14), Lindor (39), Conforto (38), Alonso (13), Davis (95), McCann (19), Nimmo (73), deGrom (94).

That’s not even counting every single other player who was hurt this year. It’s … not ideal, to say the least.

Now, onto some performance-based reasons why the Mets didn’t make the playoffs in 2021.

734 — Francisco Lindor’s OPS
Yes, the Mets dealt with a mountain of injuries this season, but that was far from the only reason they missed the playoffs. Frankly, they just didn’t hit.

Lindor having the worst offensive season of his career was one of the main contributors to that issue. He hit .230/.322/.416 with 20 home runs in 524 plate appearances, all good for an OPS+ of 101 — so essentially league average. The issue is, Lindor isn’t paid to be above average. He’s paid to be one of the best in baseball.

He was still one of the team’s most valuable players in 2021 and should win the NL gold glove at short, maybe even the Platinum one. But he just didn’t hit nearly enough as the Mets needed him to in 2021.

384 — Michael Conforto’s slugging percentage
Speaking of not hitting enough, Conforto might be the most egregious case. After putting up a .927 OPS in the 60-game 2020 season and hitting 33 home runs in 2019, expectations were high heading into Conforto’s contract year.

Not only did he fall short, but he practically fell flat on his face. The only semi-redemable part of his season is that he still walked at an over 10% rate, but that’s pretty much it. His power seemingly disappeared, with his slugging percentage dropping below .400 for the first time in his career. His next-worst was .414 in 2016, the year he got sent-down mid-season.

Like Lindor, Conforto finished with an OPS+ of 101. Unlike Lindor, Conforto doesn’t bring gold-glove caliber fielding with him.

249 — Jeff McNeil’s batting average
Yes, batting average is by no means as important as it used to be. However, Jeff McNeil was supposed to be one of those players who makes his living on the back of that stat. From 2018-20, he actually had the highest batting average in baseball of players with at least 200 games played, with a .319.

Then 2021 came, and McNeil seemingly forgot how to hit. He didn’t hit for average. He didn’t hit for power. He just didn’t hit anything. He practically played himself out of a guaranteed starting spot in 2022, and maybe even out of Queens.

77 — James McCann’s OPS+
McCann was never brought in to be one of the top offensive catchers in baseball. He was brought in to be a rock behind the plate, something the Mets hadn’t had in years, and then hopefully about league average with the bat.

What the Mets got was statistically one of the worst offensive starting catchers in baseball. He was still fine defensively, but there was just no production coming from his bat virtually all season long. Again, he didn’t have to be great. The Mets just needed him to be average, and he couldn’t do it.

31 — extra-base hits from Dominic Smith
In the last installment of hitters who just didn’t show up, it’s Dom Smith. After a breakout 2020 season that even saw him receive some down-ballot MVP, many people expected great things from him in 2021. What followed was anything but great.

In 50 games and 199 plate appearances in 2020, Smith had 32 extra-base hits. In 145 games and 493 plate appearances in 2021, Smith had 31 extra-base hits. That really just speaks for itself. It’s a really unexplainable and insane fall off, and one that, like McNeil, might have booked him a ticket out of town.