2 Mets who’ve exceeded expectations after 50 games, 2 who’ve fallen short

NY Mets outfielder Starling Marte has fallen short of expectations

We finally got to see Starling Marte do more than hit a single on Sunday when a late blast ending his drought. Some regression could have been expected out of Marte. Injuries in the end of the season limited how many games he played. Offseason surgery served as a reminder of his age.

Unfortunately, the first few weeks of the year have been rough for Marte. He’s hitting .236/.302/.299 with 4 doubles, 2 home runs, and possibly some lingering injuries. He has taken advantage of MLB rule changes and has 13 stolen bases. At least there’s that.

He’s falling short of our expectations mostly because he may have raised them a bit last year. He was an All-Star for a reason. The numbers weren’t gaudy but if you recall at the time of his selection there weren’t all that many outfielders having a better year.

The poor numbers are almost masked by how badly teammates have done. The difference between Marte and them is we foresaw the possibility of a huge drop from the play of Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha, and Daniel Vogelbach. With Marte, a decline was coming up but it seemed to catch a cab to accelerate the process.

This isn’t the same outfielder we adored and needed down the stretch in 2022.