5 reasons why the Mets can be sneaky good in 2024

5) The Mets could be an excellent baserunning team.

I was glancing through the Mets' baserunning runner run values since Baseball Savant started tracking them eight years ago. I was freightened by these results. They have been the second worst baserunning team in baseball in that span (-44, and only behind the Toronto Blue Jays), and in 2023 they were tied for fourth worst runner runs (-5). So it was clear the Mets did not value baserunning the way winning organizations usually did. Some of the baserunning mistakes I saw watching them back made me cringe, and these were in close games too.

Jeff Wilpon never understood the value of quality baserunning, and that was a reason why Mets teams under his watch were hard to watch at times. In turn, looking at these numbers, I realized there was another piece of evidence on how far behind the baseball operations department was in analytics under the Wilpons, but this is one of the areas the Mets look to improve on in the future, and they could be pretty good at that too.

The Mets bringing in Harrison Bader, Tyrone Taylor, and Joey Wendle wasn't just about their defensive value. The three of them are all quality baserunners and strong instincts from veterans of the game. You pair the newcomers with Francisco Lindor, coming off a 30-30 season in 2023, and a potentially healthy Starling Marte, and you have yourself quite a speedy ballclub, and one that can steal games with their legs.