3 reasons the NY Mets already feel like April's Fools

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April 1 is a day for practical jokes. New York Mets fans have been treated to plenty of pranks so far this season. It continued Monday with a 5-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers which extended the losing streak to 4 games.

The day commonly known as April Fool’s Day victimized Mets fans more than anyone else. Fool me once, shame on me. Twice, it’s on you. Three times, we both get the blame. What about four?

The problems for this team are collective with plenty of culprits. Why has this ball club become early April Fools?

1) A team built to play defense is making big errors

It’s ridiculous how two of the four losses already have a player who is on the roster for his defense making an egregious error that essentially cost them the game. Saturday’s loss was an early Zack Short flub. On Monday, it was Joey Wendle who debuted and added his name to the mess. Unfortunately for Wendle, his error came in the 10th inning and led to five runs.

Through four games, we can’t really measure defensive metrics too greatly. Other than errors, nothing shows up on the stat sheet. The Mets defenders have already gotten away with a few of those errors being counted as hits.

Without marvelous defense, who are the Mets?

We shouldn’t see these defensive flaws this early in the year. Is it rust? A lack of fundies? Proving the cause isn’t up to the fans. Figuring out a solution is what the Mets need to do.

Bound to make silly mistakes on defense throughout the year, they’ve already proven costly for a team that wasn’t supposed to be this sloppy.

2) Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor continue to do nothing

What’s going on with these two? In the offseason the only debate routinely discussed with them is who the better leader is. Funny. Now a combined 2 for 32 with 8 strikeouts and zero extra base hits, it’s probably time to try something different with the batting order.

The Mets did push Francisco Alvarez up in the lineup on Monday for one change. However, Nimmo and Lindor remain in the one and two spot. Perhaps splitting them up with Alvarez or even the second hottest hitter on the roster, Starling Marte, is a worthwhile experiment. After all, if Marte has a good year, hitting second is the best place for him.

Nimmo and Lindor aren’t alone in their early malaise. Jeff McNeil is 1 for 12. Pointing a quick finger at the part-timers, the Mets have gotten very little out of them, too. And because it’s early in the season, each of them must get at least one start, right?

While it doesn’t solve anything, a lineup of Nimmo followed by Marte and then Lindor is easy enough to try. Anything, really, is worth experimenting with at this point. It’s a horrible look for your two most expensive everyday players to be this lost. If we had to pick one reason why the Mets are winless, it’s this.

3) The Mets are getting run over and not running at all

The Mets have yet to attempt to steal a base. The opportunities have been limited. Nevertheless, to not have even a single attempt while also giving up 8 stolen bases without catching anyone shows a massive disregard for that aspect of the game.

None of the Tigers managed to swipe a bag on the Mets. It was helpful that Sean Manaea was excellent and also a lefty. They have only two stolen bases as a team this year. The pair of ex-Mets, Javier Baez and Mark Canha, are the ones who managed to come away with a bag.

Batters can break out of slumps. Defenders can find their glove. What’s difficult to do is for an entire team to suddenly recreate some balance between the number of stolen bases they have versus how many they give up. This has been a common issue for many Mets teams in the past. Last year, the Mets stole 118 bases and were caught 15 times. They gave up 156 and caught 24.

This goes beyond just recent teams. The days of Noah Syndergaard on the mound and Travis d’Arnaud behind the plate had base runners rabid. How many of the runs they gave up against the Milwaukee Brewers came in part because of a stolen base? How many others came because the pitcher was too focused on not letting it happen again?

We’ll get a quick break from this during the Tigers series. However, the next opponent, the Cincinnati Reds, have already swiped 11. A part of their game plan should include wreaking havoc on the Mets between the bags and continuing the trend of making them look like the Fools of April.

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