2 Mets early-season problems that won’t go away, 1 you shouldn’t worry about

The Mets are bound to have one core member of the lineup have a bad year

Francisco Lindor spent most of the first week of the season getting lambasted by the LOLMets for clicks outlets. The rainouts didn’t help much. What a long week it was.

Lindor might not be the player you’re concerned about in the lineup. He has proven in the past he most likely will have a productive season. Just how productive is the question. In only three years with the Mets, we’ve seen him look both excellent and terrible.

There is enough recent evidence to suggest a career-worst year is inbound for at least one member of the starting lineup. Is it Lindor? Brandon Nimmo? Jeff McNeil? Since 2021, all three of them have at least one season where their numbers were down significantly from the mean. They are capable of going through a long slump. Nimmo and McNeil had a lengthy one last summer.

So much went so well for the Mets in 2022 that it seems as if they’ve been paying off a debt to a demon ever since—the first payment coming in the installment of a Starling Marte injury late in 2022.

It’s far too early to know exactly which member of the lineup is going to have an underwhelming year. We’ll just have to hope it’s not more than one because if guys like Lindor, Nimmo, and McNeil are all below average, the 162 game season will feel like 162,000.