NY Mets Scapegoats: 1 player who’s cooked, 1 who isn’t, 1 still on the grill

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There is no better time than the last week of July to go outside and smoke up some meats—or however it is cool people phrase barbecuing. Some of us wouldn’t know what cool was if it untucked our pants from our socks. We spend far too much time focusing on what the New York Mets are doing to ever know proper BBQ vernacular.

On the topic of BBQs, in honor of the pulled pork I cannot wait to eat before July is over, let’s check in on some of the Mets scapegoats this season who’ve taken plenty of blame but do it in a different way. One of them is completely cooked. Another is raw with something left to give. Meanwhile, a third is still on the grill yet to decide if he’s done having something special to offer.

1) Cooked NY Mets scapegoat: Carlos Carrasco

There isn’t a starting pitcher on the Mets roster more cooked than Cookie Carrasco. It’s in his nickname for crying out loud. Throughout his Mets tenure, Carrasco has teetered on looking like a number three or four rotation arm. A start later he looks like a DFA candidate.

It’s not exactly a shock to see Carrasco pitch this poorly. We saw him perform even worse in 2021. The success in 2022 made him a more realistic option for the 2023 rotation. The Mets picked up his option and went forward with the veteran righty, hoping to squeeze out one more season.

In terms of a BBQ, it might be like flipping a nearly empty ketchup bottle. But because the sides are all slathered in red, it’s impossible to tell how much is actually left inside. With Carrasco, there’s not much. You can stick a knife inside and scrape out a little bit like his early July start against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

2) Raw NY Mets scapegoat: Justin Verlander

There’s a lot left in Justin Verlander. He is proving to the Mets lately how right they were to believe age ain’t nothing but a number. After starting the year on the IL only to return in early May with a new pace of the game to figure out, Verlander has settled in and looked much more like his old self. In terms of scapegoats, he’s the rawest of all.

Any thought of trading Verlander needs to end. He isn’t giving the Mets a $43 million performance this year, but how many free agents ever fully live up to those big contracts?

Verlander is now 5-5 with a 3.24 ERA on the season. Other than the record, which we learned from Jacob deGrom years ago doesn’t fall on the pitcher, Verlander is looking much more like himself. The ERA is an exact match of his career earned run average. And although his walk rate has doubled from last year to 3 per 9 and his strikeouts are way down to 7.7 per 9, run prevention ultimately matters more than anything else.

His last two starts have been especially promising with 8 innings of one run ball against the Chicago White Sox followed by six shutout frames versus the New York Yankees in the Bronx.

Verlander has something left to offer the Mets. Even if the expiration date might pass for most players his age, this player has flavor left.

3) Still on the grill NY Mets scapegoat: Max Scherzer

Would the real Max Scherzer please stand up? Carlos Carrasco’s season has included good and bad appearances. So has Justin Verlander’s. Nobody’s year has swayed as drastically as the one Scherzer has put together. He never quite stabilized himself as one of the best pitchers in the league like Verlander has been lately; at least not for a long enough period of time. Nor has he obliterated his reputation for enough consecutive starts for us to reasonably believe he is completely cooked. Scherzer remains on the grill with his 2024 fate yet to be determined. He’ll have to prove himself down in Texas. He’s a Ranger.

All of the flack Scherzer received from Mets fans has been justified. The hype. The contract. The talent we know he has. At times, it looked like Scherzer skipped the twilight of his career and went straight to midnight.

The only way we could have accepted this piece of Mets meat is to change our expectations. Scherzer is not the same pitcher anymore. He’s also not a complete waste of a roster spot. He could accidentally have a much better year. Equally as likely is for Scherzer to decline even further and it gets in the way of the Mets making a run. All possibilities are there for Scherzer next season. Alas, he’s on the Rangers’ plate now.

Scherzer is the chef and he’s serving up some mystery meat for the rest of this season and next. We’ll wish him the best, but won’t fret if he’s a little too tough for Texas fans to chew.

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