3 concerns the Mets have ahead of the Braves series

The New York Mets enter the most consequential series of the 2022 MLB regular season tonight against the Atlanta Braves, but that doesn’t mean the Mets have issues going into this season-defining tilt. Fans should look at multiple concerns in different parts of the roster as the division rivals collide with the Mets holding a one game lead with six games to go. 

1) Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom has struggled as of late, just in time for the biggest regular season start of his careeer. 

It is rare for a two-time Cy Young award winner and the best pitcher in baseball to be an issue for one’s own team, but that is exactly the case with the Mets and Jacob deGrom.  

In each of his last three starts, against the Cubs, Pirates, and A’s, he is 0-2 with a 6.60 ERA and is coming off one of the worst of his 208 career regular season starts on Saturday against the A’s, where he gave up five runs (four in the first inning) in just four innings pitched. It was clear his command was the slightest bit off, and the A’s, the team with the worst team batting average in a non-shortened season in 54 years, went off.  

Now, Buck Showalter moved deGrom ahead of Chris Bassitt to pitch the series opener tonight. It is mainly for name recognition and his matchup against the Braves is favorable since they strike out a lot and that deGrom has 14.0 strikeouts per nine frames this year. But the Braves offense is much better than the other teams that deGrom has faced, and deGrom must locate his pitches well, or else this Braves team, one that has hit a NL-best 234 home runs, may very well mash the ball out. 

2) The absence of Starling Marte means others must step up at the plate. 

The Mets received word on Wednesday that Starling Marte’s finger isn’t completely healed and there is no timetable for him to return, which is another tough break for the team. Marte was excellent for the Mets in his first season with the team, batting .292 with 16 home runs, 76 runs scored, 18 stolen bases, and a career high 132 OPS+.  

The Mets have felt the absence of Starling Marte from their lineup for much of the past three weeks, because of the lack of dynamic offensive players that make the whole offense better. Fortunately, Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Eduardo Escobar have stepped up to prevent September from being an abject disaster. 

As a result, the lineup has felt a lot shorter, and it has particularly exposed the bottom of the lineup as it hasn’t produced the way they did earlier this year. It is going to take someone like Mark Vientos or Daniel Vogelbach to produce and make the lineup feel longer. 

Marte’s latest setback might feel big if the Mets can’t sustain rallies like they have all year, and it felt like Marte was involved in many of those magical sequences that have brought the Mets to this point.