3 reasons to have faith in the Mets rotation, and 3 reasons not to

The Mets don't have the Hall of Famers to gravitate around this time.

It was a treat to watch Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Jacob deGrom take the hill for the Mets over the past couple of years. Scherzer and Verlander are certainly headed to the Hall of Fame six years after they retire, and deGrom may go there too if he logs enough longevity for the voters of BBWAA to cave in to.

The Mets don't have that this year. They don't have a pitcher worth (or with) a ridiculous $43 million contract on their roster this year, though the Mets are paying down more than half of Scherzer and Verlander's contracts this season to the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros, respectively.

The rest of the Mets rotation can be inconsistent at times.

The free agents the Mets signed this offseason did not receive glowing praise like previous offseasons. Instead, these moves are designed to bridge the gap between now and the future, when they hope they'll have three young starters in the rotation full-time. But more importantly, the Mets probably had to answer how they were going to find their innings to get through the season.

The three new starters, Severino, Houser, and Manaea, have been inconsistent over the past four years with control problems and injury issues. Trends say that could continue in 2024.

The Mets have, at best, the third best starting rotation in their division.

This rotation, on paper, is not one that guarantees quality. In a division that has a couple of strong offenses in the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies, poor quality may lead to them not winning the division.

The Braves have a splurge of young pitching talent in their rotation with Spencer Strider and Bryce Elder and veterans in Charlie Morton and recently-acquired Chris Sale.

The Phillies just brought back Aaron Nola on a 7-year contract, Zack Wheeler coming off another excellent season, and a strong No. 3 starter in Ranger Suarez.

The Mets' top four starters are inferior to those of Atlanta and Philadelphia, and that could be a problem if the Mets want to go to the playoffs in 2024.