Is the Mets starting lineup good enough without Carlos Correa?

Carlos Correa (pending physical) will be heading back to the Minnesota Twins and not the New York Mets.

This leaves a huge hole in our expectations for the 2023 Mets. Third base will, yet again, be occupied by some combination of Eduardo Escobar and most likely Brett Baty. It’s not bad, but it isn’t as good. The Mets lose something defensively with both. Escobar has his faults and Baty may need a full season to get his big league feet wet.

The Mets starting lineup suddenly goes back to where it was at the end of last year. This raises an important question, is it good enough?

The Mets starting lineup is not good enough without Carlos Correa

Maybe it’s the lingering one-hit loss in the postseason that makes this an easy declaration to make. The team was able to score runs frequently in the regular season. Against the San Diego Padres in Game 3, they went completely silent.

There isn’t too much more we could ask for from many of the returning players. Starling Marte is another year older and may not replicate the same numbers from last season. The same goes for Mark Canha who outhit what many thought he could do. The Mets have to answer back with finding a sure thing to platoon with Daniel Vogelbach at the DH spot. It’s something Billy Eppler needs to be on top of immediately.

Correa was not going to suddenly make the Mets the most feared lineup in baseball. What he was going to offer was consistency at the plate. Baty is too much of an unknown at this point in his career. Escobar, outside of his glorious final month of the season, dragged the lineup down.

The Mets surprised us all when overnight they snuck in and agreed to a deal with Correa. Since Christmas Eve, we all confidently believed something would get done between the two.

Unfortunately, the Mets won’t have any major free agents they can throw that kind of money at. There are minor pieces remaining. At third base, we’ll all have to hope they get enough from Escobar and Baty.

At the moment, the Mets lineup could use a boost. Depth is all they can really do outside of some sort of a blockbuster trade nobody saw coming.