2 Mets players who will exceed expectations and 2 who will fall short

Expectations for the New York Mets seem to be getting constantly rewritten this offseason. I’ve personally come to believe in them a little more as the offseason progressed and we saw some solid performances in spring training.

Still viewed even in the most optimistic of eyes as a wild card team at best, how we feel about individual players can fluctuate from brazenly blind with positivity to unmovably discouraged. Then there’s everything in between.

Which Mets players will exceed the expectations of fans and who’s going to fall short?

Brett Baty will exceed the lowered expectations Mets fans have for him

Fans aren’t exactly lining up to make wagers on Brett Baty winning any sort of major award. A so-so spring training performance weighs lightly. We know not to get fooled by what he does in exhibition action. Baty had one of the more productive spring training tours in 2023 only to succumb to reality when the regular season began and he was recalled.

Baty can shock everyone by being more than a bottom of the lineup hitter. Written off as an option to bat much higher than seventh on any given day, he’s someone we can’t forget went into last year as one of the best prospects in baseball. Those years of scouting experience couldn’t have been that universally wrong, could they?

Baty may not be the long term solution at third base. In fact, let’s declare it right now. He isn’t. The defensive skills just don’t look like they’ll be acceptable. A position change, even on an occasional basis to start, seems like the only way he will remain with the Mets organization.

Hitting is what got Baty to the major leagues. Batting close to .250 and clobbering nearly 20 home runs would be a treat after last year. If all he ends up doing this year is clobber righties and suffer against lefties, Baty’s overall totals should improve drastically.