2 Mets concerns beginning to fade away, 1 that will continue to linger

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New York Mets fans have enjoyed the last couple of days. A huge win late against the Tampa Bay Rays has completely changed the vibe of the team. They’re exciting again. Baseball in Queens is all of a sudden the show to watch.

Some of those concerns we had even a week ago are beginning to quickly fade away. Meanwhile, another continues to linger and may not evaporate any time soon.

NY Mets concern fading away: This team can score runs and won’t give up

The Mets are around league average in runs scored and have been there for much of the year. There wasn’t any extended period where they were challenging the Oakland Athletics for the least amount of runs scored. They were never among the best either.

More important than total runs scored is when and how they’ve managed to cross the plate recently. Those two come-from-behind in the tenth victories permanently dropped our jaws to the floor. The 2023 Mets haven’t been one to fight until the end. Suddenly, this is a team that doesn’t give up until the final out.

Teams that quit will easily make fans disinterested. This was a problem with the Mets even when they were playing decent baseball. Their poor stretch in early May piled onto the disgust many of us were feeling. The Mets were disinterested and average at best. This week, they’ve been completely different.

We’ll need to see more out of this ball club to completely declare this state of emergency over. A big win that doesn’t take ten innings to complete could be all it takes for us to put our full trust back into this ball club.

NY Mets concern fading away: The starting rotation is improving

Yes, Carlos Carrasco didn’t look very good in his return from the IL on Friday. Justin Verlander’s most recent outing isn’t something he’ll talk about in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech either. But we’ve seen three other very good performances from Max Scherzer, Kodai Senga, and Tylor Megill. Three out of five ain’t bad.

The starting rotation has easily been the biggest disappointment of the season. The Mets were supposed to have a starting five we could count on. Even beyond whoever they had on the roster at a given time, we believed Megill and David Peterson would be able to step in and step up in anyone’s absence.

Questions about the rotation remain. Can Scherzer keep it going? Can Verlander find his rhythm? What, if anything, can we expect from Carrasco or even Jose Quintana who has been on the IL since the preseason?

The Mets don’t need to have the best rotation in baseball to win a championship. Signs of an improvement have eased some of those worries. There will be troublesome days where the Mets have to fight from behind no matter how well the aces perform for the remainder of the season.

Most of all, we want to see the Mets starting pitchers perform well enough to get them to the postseason. Once there, it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation. 

Continue to grit your teeth in those early innings. Give yourself a break and don’t bite down on your tongue too hard.

NY Mets concern continuing to linger: The age of this roster

Some things will never change. The age of the Mets roster can only get younger if the players themselves do.

We’ve seen the influx of youth onto the major league club over the last few weeks. While it has had some benefits, a large core of this roster is a bit older than many of us would like.

Players whose age is of some concern include the duo of Scherzer and Verlander along with outfielder Starling Marte. All three have shown some sign of regression this year. Marte’s may be the biggest surprise given how much younger he is than those two. At least with the pitchers we can point at the increased speed of the game as one of the factors for slowing them down.

Age concerns do go beyond those three. In the bullpen, the Mets are relying heavily on veterans Adam Ottavino and David Robertson. Getting them through the year healthy is paramount to win it all. We should expect some additions at the trade deadline. What happens when one of those two, heaven forbid, land on the IL in September?

Handling players differently is something the Mets need to take into consideration. Marte may need to sit a little extra. The pitchers will need their rest.

Our fear of an over-the-hill Mets team struggling to go the distance because of age won’t disappear no matter how many prospects they call up. This is a team that needs at least some of the veterans to perform at a high level. Unless Steve Cohen locates and purchases The Fountain of Youth, this concern will linger.

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