3 early season red flags the Mets are still trying to overcome

We know not to judge a book by its cover. We’ve all watched enough baseball to also understand if something is going wrong in the first few weeks, give it time. These problems have a way of working themselves out. Some early ups and downs for the New York Mets in April tore in each direction at our emotions. A fight late in the month to get back over .500 and into playoff relevancy made us think some of those early red flags were nothing but a warning.

Now into June when things usually fall apart for the Mets, we now realize those blood-red flags were more of an omen than a final cry to get things corrected.

These three early Mets red flags continue to flap in the breeze. The team continues to fight to overcome them.

1) Red Flag: Core members of the Mets offense are having miserable years

The lineup change which saw Francisco Lindor move to the top, Pete Alonso go to the number to slot, and Brandon Nimmo bat third helped wake all three up but the wins remain tough to come by. As improved as this new starting lineup has been, those three plus Jeff McNeil are well on their way to having some of their worst seasons.

Only Alonso started the season strongly before he underwent an equally massive slump. There’s something to be said about a small sample size here. In a matter of days, Alonso went from hitting .167 to .281. We’ll gladly accept him getting back to .250 again—a mark he hasn’t been at since April 28 when the game began.

Batting average isn’t what we count on from Alonso and while he continues to hit home runs and drive in runners, it’s how little this team has gotten from Lindor, Nimmo, and McNeil that has added to Alonso’s struggles. 

McNeil has easily been the worst of the three and aside from a permanent benching there isn’t much they can do about it. We’ve seen McNeil slump terribly in the past. Last year’s “down year” would look terrific right now. Instead, he’s barely doing anything.

How other members of the Mets roster hit is almost irrelevant when these four aren’t. Starling Marte has been okay. J.D. Martinez could probably do more. Mark Vientos has somehow decided to carry the biggest load of all despite playing in so few games.

It’s only recently the Mets decided to do something drastic about these struggling players. McNeil sitting for Jose Iglesias. Vientos completely replacing Brett Baty as the third baseman. There isn’t much more they can do other than hope these guys figure it out.