No Mets players better exemplifies the highs and lows of this team more than Jose Quintana

Every season has its highs and lows. New York Mets fans just seem to experience them a little more than some.

The 2024 season, as young as it is, has already managed to tug a little too strongly at the heartstrings and not in the way a cute baby bunny will. Their 0-5 start followed by a fight back over the .500 mark only to fall back under again is more proof of what a rollercoaster the year will be.

Of all the players on the roster, no one better represents those highs and lows than starting pitcher Jose Quintana. Just as he makes us believe, he looks much more human again.

Jose Quintana is a very average pitcher on a very average Mets team

Quintana isn’t having a good year and one could even say he’s not having a bad one either. His 5.44 ERA argues against it not being a bad one but consider the sample size. An absolute beat down against the Tampa Bay Rays did the most to launch his ERA. He went into that start at 3.48 only for it to balloon to 5.20 by the time it was over.

Averageness has been the name of the game for Quintana this year. No more than 4 strikeouts in any game, zero games without issuing at least one walk, and at least one run allowed in each appearance, he has been predictably just okay with some extreme outliers along the way.

Quintana went record 14-17 outs in each of his first 5 starts only to then go 8 strong against the St. Louis Cardinals in a shoulda-been-win where he had a no-decision. Immediately following it up with his shortest out of the year, the 2.2 innings against the Rays, Mets fans were mistreated to another one of those all-too-common lows.

A great, a terrible, and a very average outing with one horrific inning is the recent stretch Quintana has been on. He is the definition of who the 2024 Mets are.