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3 troubling Mets trends fans should be concerned about
The Mets are playing better baseball after an 0-5 start, but there are still reasons for fans to worry.
The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants Wednesday afternoon to avoid a sweep and close out their West Coast road trip with a respectable 3-3 record. It was a bit of a disappointing finish after taking the first two games from the Los Angeles Dodgers to run their win streak to six games, but Mets fans have to be happy with the team's 13-11 record as we near the end of April.
Carlos Mendoza's group has done well to get back above .500, but with the Braves and Phillies also playing great ball, every flaw is magnified. Can the Mets continue playing well, or have the last few weeks been a mirage? We're about to find out, but for now, let's look at three reasons that Mets fans should be concerned.
1) The top of the Mets lineup isn't hitting
Francisco Lindor did his best to erase his painfully slow start to the season by blasting two home runs and adding two more hits on Wednesday, but one breakout game can't overcome four weeks worth of failure.
Even with his exemplary day at the plate, Lindor is hitting just .206 to start the year, and his struggles have taken up too much of the conversation through the season's first month. He has hit better since Mets fans gave him the Trea Turner treatment by giving him a standing ovation to help him bust out of his slump, but the Mets need more from their $341 million man than a quality glove and a .652 OPS.
Lindor isn't the only Mets star that has had issues at the plate. Brandon Nimmo is close to the league lead with 19 walks, but his bat has been silent for much of the year. Nimmo is below the Mendoza Line with a .186 average, and if you take away his two-homer, five-RBI game over the Braves two weeks ago, he's done virtually nothing with the bat.
It's a testament to the Mets' resilience that they're two games above .500 when two of their biggest stars are performing so badly, so consistently. Starling Marte and Pete Alonso have done their part to keep the top of the order afloat, but they need some help. The baseball season is a long one, and though Lindor's and Nimmo's issues at the top of the order haven't been enough to sink the team, they will if they're not fixed soon.
2) The injuries are piling up for the Mets
It's difficult to remember a time when the Mets were immune to the injury bug. Last season was derailed before it even began by Edwin Diaz's torn patellar tendon, and this season had a similar shadow cast over it when Ronny Mauricio tore his ACL in December and Kodai Senga was unable to take the ball on Opening Day with a shoulder capsule strain.
The Mets have persevered without their ace thanks to strong starts from newcomers Luis Severino and Sean Manaea, plus a bullpen that, with Diaz back in the fold, ranks as one of the best in baseball. That hasn't stopped the injury bug from wreaking more havoc with the roster, though, and even if everyone else stays healthy, it'll be at least two months until the Mets are fully intact again.
There's still no clear timetable on when Senga will return, and now after Francisco Alvarez went down with a UCL injury in his thumb while running the bases against the Dodgers, they'll also be without his top battery mate for about eight weeks.
Alvarez's ascension as one of the best young catchers in baseball has been huge for the Mets, and the protection he provided behind Alonso in the lineup contributed to the Polar Bear winning National League Player of the Week earlier this month. In his stead, Omar Narvaez has become the starter, with Tomas Nido being called up from AAA to be his backup. That pair is functional, but hardly the game-changing force that Alvarez has proven he can be.
JD Martinez is finally set to make his Mets debut in the series opener against the Cardinals, and it's been a long time coming after he was signed more than a month ago to be the team's primary DH. DJ Stewart has been tremendous in his place, but Martinez's slow ramp-up due to a lower back issue has nonetheless been troubling, especially since he's 36 years old to begin with. Back issues don't tend to just go away.
The Mets have dealt with other injuries too, as Brett Baty had to miss a few games with hamstring tightness and Brooks Raley is currently on the injured list with left elbow discomfort, though thankfully an MRI showed no structural damage.
Injuries are inevitable in a 162-game baseball season, but the Mets have already had more than their fair share. Having a "next man up" mentality has allowed the Mets to stay in contention through it all, but if the injuries don't slow down, they could prove too difficult to overcome over the long haul.
3) The Mets have looked bad against top pitchers
This one isn't surprising, because most of the league has trouble scoring against the best pitchers, but it's still worth noting. When the Mets have gone against premium starting pitching, they've looked bad as a group.
Logan Webb shut the Mets down on Tuesday, scattering six hits in eight shutout innings. Last year's second-place finisher in the NL Cy Young race was never in any serious trouble, with only Starling Marte getting the best of him. The right fielder's three hits were all in vain, though, as Webb flummoxed Lindor every time Marte was aboard.
Webb's dominating performance came just two days after the Dodgers' Tyler Glasnow shut the Mets down with eight overwhelming innings of his own. The former Tampa Bay Ray struck out 10 and walked none, leaving the Mets lineup helpless in what turned out to be a 10-0 laugher.
The cold bats were cold no more in battering the Giants bullpen on Wednesday in lieu of facing struggling reigning NL Cy Young winner, Blake Snell. Lindor did much of the heavy lifting in an 8-2 win.
The Mets need to figure out how to score against top flight pitching if they want to survive this pennant race. Miles Mikolas and Sonny Gray are set to start the first two games of the Cardinals series, with the Cubs' Shota Imanaga and the Phillies' Zach Wheeler looming in May.
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