Mets fans have already lost patience with these 3 players

No one wins or loses a championship after the season’s first month, but some concerning trends have emerged for the New York Mets with April behind them.

While the team held things together despite an injury-depleted starting rotation, there was little to suppress some of the most frequent criticisms laid on the team prior to Opening Day. Putting aside the fragility of an older pitching staff, issues towards the bottom of the lineup emerged - specifically, a lack power and production at certain positions.

For a few notable Mets, fan patience has already run thin.

1) NY Mets fans have lost patience with Daniel Vogelbach

A common criticism of the Mets’ lineup going into this season was a lack of relative power, particularly at the designated hitter spot. Sure enough, the Mets had just two home runs and a .198 / .330 / .286 slash line from DHs in their first 27 games.

Despite only starting as a DH against right-handers, Daniel Vogelbach has epitomized those numbers in many ways. On the surface, his slash line through April - .271 / .417 / .375 – looks fine, but it also illustrates the root of the issue.

Ironically, the fans’ impatience with him is that he’s too patient. When the Mets acquired Vogelbach last year at the trade deadline, it was to inject more power into the lineup behind the likes of Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor. His selectiveness at the plate – while undoubtedly one of his strengths – has become redundant in a lineup filled with high on-base hitters and sacrifices too much of the power he can provide.

Yes, the .417 on-base percentage looks great in a vacuum. But a year after hitting 18 home runs and not long removed from a career-high 30 home runs in 2019, Vogelbach hit just one ball over the fence in April.

The Mets don’t need Vogelbach to get on base – they need him to drive the ball.

3) NY Mets fans have lost patience with Tomas Nido

Like DH, the Mets entered the season with questions around how much offense they would get from the catcher position. Omar Narvaez was signed last winter to provide some pop but suffered an injury early in April, leaving Tomas Nido and young prospect Francisco Alvarez as options in the short term.

And while most attention has been on Alvarez and his uneven start since being called up, a lack of production from Nido has truly magnified issues at the bottom of the lineup. Nido hasn’t contributed at all with the bat, with just five hits (all singles) in 43 at-bats through April.

Of course, Nido’s value to the team in recent years has been his defense and pitch framing ability behind the plate. But last year, Nido found ways to contribute offensively, often moving runners into scoring position and being the team’s most effect bunter. Unfortunately, nothing has gone right for Nido on either side of the ball to date.

As Alvarez continues to get comfortable, both at the plate and calling games, it will be interesting to see how playing time shakes out between the two. More notably, it’s fair to wonder if Nido keeps a spot on the team should he fail to get on track by the time Narvaez returns from injury.