3 NY Mets nightmare scenarios other than injury that can spoil the 2025 season

2) The DH spot is a source of trouble for the lineup

The DH spot is, ideally, a spot on the roster where you either have a Shohei Ohtani, David Ortiz, or Edgar Martinez. If you don’t have one of those guys, making it a fluid situation works well. The Mets won’t have the same amount of fluidity this season. It’s going to be a lot of Jesse Winker and Starling Marte. Maybe not even for the full season. Both have only one year of control and if they’re not producing we shouldn’t expect them to stick around.

The Mets may secretly have one of the better DH duos out there. Then again, how many times have we thought this before? A simple lefty/righty split in the role at least looks good on paper. Winker gets to handle himself regularly versus right-handed pitchers. Marte can do his damage against the southpaws. Together, they should make for one really good hitter.

There are signs this won’t be the deadliest duo. Winker struggled mightily in 2022 and 2023. We even got a glimpse of how bad he could slump last September. More familiar with Marte, we’re all aware of just how poorly he may hit for an extended period of time. The absence of more regular playing time is either going to benefit him greatly by keeping him healthy or will allow him to petrify because of all of the sitting around he does.

Making Mark Vientos a full-time DH in a worst-case scenario isn’t the easiest solution because it would require someone else to take over at third base. While a viable solution, those current options have far too much left to prove before we should feel comfortable with this Plan-B.