Keith Hernandez preaches to the choir with his biggest NY Mets concern to begin 2025

Not too many people have seen more New York Mets baseball than Keith Hernandez. We’ve come to trust him on all matters of the game so when he names a concern he has, it adds legitimacy.

On an episode of The Show which is a video podcast by the New York Post starring Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman, Hernandez expressed a couple of thoughts about the Mets. Included was the need for the team to re-sign Pete Alonso, the slight improvements in the bullpen, and the one thing keeping him up at night. It’s not UFOs.

Hernandez lacks faith in the starting rotation. It’s reasonable considering they’ve already dipped deep into the depth. Minus Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas to begin the season, it’s doubts about the replacements that has Hernandez timid about this team.

Keith Hernandez is as worried as anyone about the Mets starting staff

At least in this clip, Hernandez didn’t name names, but we understand fully what he’s getting at. Even after an electric spring training, there is some reasonable doubt about Clay Holmes being a staff ace. David Peterson has to make his sequel almost as good as the original. How durable can Kodai Senga be to remain one of the best pitchers in the league?

There isn’t a sure thing in the Mets rotation even while healthy. Manaea overachieved on projections last year. Montas hasn’t been good (or healthy enough) for several seasons.

Hernandez’s worries, however, seem to come from the idea of throwing Tylor Megill out there every fifth day to begin the year. Griffin Canning had an awesome spring, but we shouldn’t get too thrilled about such a small sample. He has not been a spectacular major leaguer. The same applies for Paul Blackburn who, although he won’t begin the year in the rotation, doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Where have we heard all of this before? Turn your calendar 365 pages backward, you’ll find most felt this way about the 2024 Mets rotation. Tumultuous at times, the Mets starting staff would end up with a 3.91 ERA, tied for 12th in MLB with the San Diego Padres. The .234 batting average against was the third-best in all of baseball and first in the National League. They even logged 892.2 innings which was fifth in baseball and only slightly behind the Atlanta Braves (904.1) and Philadelphia Phillies (903).

What hurt most were the walks. A grand total of 335 led all starting pitching staffs in the statistic. The free passes were incredibly frustrating and there’s little reason to believe this will improve all that much.

Many of the concerns with the starting staff are much larger than a few ball fours. We’ve seen the Mets starting staff swat down those critiques. Expecting them to do it all over again does seem a bit foolish. Keith isn’t buying in while the B-squad is in place.