Mets starting lineup: 2 encouraging, 2 discouraging takeaways this season

The New York Mets have a nearly identical starting lineup from the end of last season with a few tweaks. Instead of Darin Ruf, there’s Tommy Pham. Tomas Nido is currently joined by Francisco Alvarez for the catching duties. Third base is a shared position between Brett Baty and Eduardo Escobar.

Few changes had many Mets fans questioning how far the team could go. The lineup was able to score runs last season, mostly thanks to some timely hitting.

As we near the end of April, we have some encouraging and discouraging takeaways from the bats.

Encouraging: The NY Mets starting lineup knows how to get on base

The Mets know how to get on base. They’ve been among the best at drawing walks this year almost to a nauseating level. It has helped them in games against weak or at least wild pitches. Versus tougher pitching staffs, the Mets haven’t looked as good because of their overly patient approach at the plate.

We should be encouraged by anyone getting on base. This tends to be one of those skills a player or team doesn’t suddenly flip a switch and change. This was an expected quality of the 2023 Mets starting lineup. With Brandon Nimmo at the top as one of the most capable OBP guys in the game and even a tremendously patient eye of Daniel Vogelbach somewhere in the middle, we knew the Mets would clog up the bases frequently.

The one downside is it creates more station-to-station play. When the Mets drew 17 walks against the Oakland Athletics, it was all they needed. Not many pitching staffs will serve up that many free passes. The lineup needs to use their bat. It’s one of the discouraging signs we’ve seen from them so far.