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2 Mets players who will maintain their hot starts, 1 who won’t
You’d think looking in some places that the New York Mets were playing terrible baseball. Far from it. In the face of plenty of adversity, the team has stepped up and played pretty well. There is a long way to go and whatever you think of this team right now may not be true even within a month.
The positive start to the year can be credited to a variety of players. These three, in particular, have been on fire in the ways they best know how.
Two of them look like they can maintain something at least close to the pace they’re on. Another is likely to see trouble eventually catch up.
1) NY Mets slugger Pete Alonso is hitting well and it’s no fluke
Pete Alonso’s early numbers seem to fluctuate daily. An 0 for 4 performance will drop his slash line a noticeable amount. What isn’t going away are how many home runs and RBI he has through the early part of the year.
Alonso has either led or been among the leaders in these two statistics in the first few weeks of the season. Frankly, it’s these two areas the Mets need him to produce the most. When Alonso hits home runs, the RBI totals go up. And even when he isn’t necessarily going yard, finding other ways to drive in runs is something he must do.
The Mets lineup is dependent on Alonso for crooked numbers. A strong beginning to the 2023 season is a must for them to be successful. He’s doing about exactly what we’d expect him to.
Unfortunately, Alonso has slowed down of late yet not significantly enough for us to call this a season-long slump. After 116 trips to the plate, the Polar Bear is batting .257/.328/.562 with 10 home runs and 25 RBI. The average is slightly down, the OBP is more significantly below where we’d like it, and the power is superb.
2) NY Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo will cool off slightly but still produce
Brandon Nimmo is taking his new contract seriously. He’s off to one of the best starts of all on the Mets roster. We definitely shouldn’t expect him to keep up at this exact pace. However, a career-year out of Nimmo isn’t out of the question. If he can hit .300 with an OBP over .400, we have to be thrilled.
Some specifics: Nimmo is slashing .330/.435/.457 with a pair of home runs and 13 RBI. He’s not leading the league in any of the major categories. He is, however, leading the Mets in just about every statistic we’d like him to.
Nimmo is unlikely to challenge for a batting title. His career-high .292 batting average from 2021, a year where he played only 92 games, is proof of that. Nimmo has proven he is a much different hitter from his breakout year in 2018 when he slashed .263/.404/.483 with 80 walks and 140 strikeouts. He has cut down on the Ks over the years and is currently walking more than he strikes out.
The hot start from Nimmo is no fool’s gold. It’s the real deal. Other than having inflated numbers because of only a handful of games being played, he looks on course for exactly what many would’ve expected out of him.
Now among the best center fielders in the game, a monster year at the plate is his chance to make this secret only Mets fans seem to know a more publicly-known fact. Slumps will come. The happiest man in baseball will bounce back from them.
3) NY Mets pitcher Joey Lucchesi is off to a hot start we shouldn’t expect him to maintain
One great start and another good one isn’t enough for anyone to start talking about keeping Joey Lucchesi in the starting rotation for the rest of his career. Sure, while the Mets need an arm and David Peterson isn’t performing well, give him his chances.
Lucchesi tossed 7 innings in his 2023 debut for the Mets and struck out 9 San Francisco Giants hitters. This came after 3 starts in Triple-A where he combined to go 2-0 with a 2.30 ERA in 15.2 innings. Many fans were delighted to see the team acquire him ahead of the 2021 season for depth. Just as he was beginning to go deeper into games as a starter, the Tommy John bug bit him and he was out for the rest of the year and for all of 2022 with the exception of 12.2 minor league frames.
His most recent outing was promising but more of what we should expect. He went 5.1 and gave up 3 earned runs while striking out 3 Washington Nationals batters. The Mets barely won the game. In fact, since Lucchesi’s win on April 21, the only other game the team has been victorious in was his start on April 27.
Appearing fully healthy and looking like a capable big league arm, this hot start is great to see yet not manageable for a guy whose resume has him as more of a back-of-the-rotation arm at best. That’s not to say Lucchesi is useless for the Mets. On the contrary, he’s pretty important.
We’ll have to circle back to Lucchesi after a few more starts to see if this hot start is something he can maintain. Have your doubts, Mets fans. Lucchesi is a solid number five or six starter. Remove that overpriced rookie card of his from your eBay “buy now” card immediately.
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