3 Mets players who proved their spring training was a fluke

3) Starling Marte

A couple of important Mets had lousy preseasons. One who aggravated fans the most was Starling Marte. Although Francisco Lindor put up some lousy preseason numbers, he had earned enough good faith from the fans to make us believe it was nothing. It, unfortunately, did offer a preview of what his early weeks of the season would look like.

For Marte it was different. A .159/.245/.182 slash line in the spring without a single home run had many of us wondering if we were in for another bat year. Marte dragged the team down last season. He was one of those players the fans wanted to see dumped somewhere else.

Well, a different version of Marte has shown up in 2024. Not quite as superb as he was in 2022, he is more than acceptable—at least as a hitter. Now batting .279/.331/.421 with 7 home runs and 12 stolen bases, Marte is a streaky player whose recent success has helped uplift the Mets. The key might’ve been to give him enough time off to recover. Thanks to the presence of players like DJ Stewart and Tyrone Taylor, the club has the right pieces to allow Marte the extra recovery time.

The season isn’t halfway over. For Marte, the test of durability is the biggest one to pass. He has been good up to this point with some cold spells like everyone else on the roster. We can take a big chill if the fiery version shows up, too.