MMO Roundtable: What Has You Most Worried About the Mets?

We’re over a month into the 2023 season, and, uh, things are not going exactly as we wanted to expected for the Mets. Should we be surprised? Eh.

We know this isn’t the happiest thing to discuss, but it’s what’s on all of our minds right now—worries about this Mets team. We’re sharing what has us most worried about the Mets. What has you most worried?

Patrick Glynn

This stretch of 15 games is the worst the team has played under Buck Showalter. If it’s not the offense struggling, it’s the pitching struggling. If it’s not the bullpen, it’s the offense not scoring or starting pitching stretching the bullpen out. If it’s not the starting pitching… it’s still the starting pitching. Last year’s rotation was built on quality starts. A quality start (six innings, three or less earned runs) isn’t a perfect stat by any means, but it can measure relatively well a pitcher who can go six innings into a game without making the offense work overtime to bail him out.

The 2022 Mets had a quality start once every two or three games (72 total). The 2023 Mets have five quality starts in 36 games, the least in MLB. So more than half of what they had last season. There are 22 pitchers who have as many or more quality starts than the Mets do as a staff. The problems start and end with the starting pitching. Once that gets on track—average, even—so will the team.

Mike Mayer

The offense has been mediocre to this point in the season, but the glaring issue for the Mets has been their rotation. It starts simply with health. The Mets have already used nine different starting pitchers and it’s not even mid-May. David Peterson completely faltering as one of the Mets key depth pieces has been disappointing.

However, the real issue is Max Scherzer not being effective (5.56 ERA) and Justin Verlander having made only one start. If the Mets are going to turn their season around, they need their co-aces to pitch when scheduled and be effective when they do. Scherzer and Verlander are getting paid to lead a championship-caliber rotation and yet the Mets starters have a brutal 5.43 ERA to this point in the season. They also need to get something from Carlos Carrasco (8.56 ERA) and hope that José Quintana can come back healthy in the second half. While it would certainly be great for the Mets to hit more dingers en route to scoring more runs, the Mets aren’t going to winning games with any consistency until the rotation settles in to keep them in ball games.

Dan Quiñones

My biggest concern is the starting pitching. The rotation looked great on paper heading into the season, but it was no secret that age was going to be a factor. Verlander, Scherzer, Quintana and Carrasco have all dealt with injuries already. In less than a month, the Mets went from having Peterson and Tylor Megill as depth starters in Triple-A to having Joey Luchessi starting games on short rest. The injuries to nearly everyone in the rotation (along with Peterson’s struggles) have turned what was expected to be a strength into one of the Mets’ biggest issues.

The offense has certainly not been consistent enough through the season’s first five weeks, but there is simply too much talent in the lineup for those struggles to continue for too much longer. If the Mets are going to turn their season around before it is too late, the pitching staff will have to get healthy and pitch at the level so many people expected them to.

John Sheridan

It’s Buck (or whoever is in charge of the lineup). We have to hope Verlander helps fix the rotation, and the extra innings from the rotation will help the bullpen. Whatever happens there, the Mets are still run by someone who thinks years in the league trumps production. We’re also seeing analytical thinking eschewed. Things are so screwed up we’re overjoyed Baty bats sixth ignoring Starling Marte (68 wRC+) batting second with Mark Canha (91 wRC+). batting fifth or sixth.

Right now, the Mets are nowhere near good enough to not try to maximize production to save veteran’s feelings. So long as feelings are valued more than production and potential, the Mets will continue to underachieve and lose.

Rich Sparago

My biggest Mets worry is the same as it was before the season started-the age of the team. The Mets gambled that two headline pitchers, either at or just under 40 years old, would be healthy enough to give them an elite rotation. So far, both Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander have been impacted by injuries, and the rotation has suffered because of it. The offense has not been able to compensate for the sub-par pitching, and the Mets have been in a free fall. There’s age in the bullpen too, with Adam Ottavino and David Robertson, though those two have been healthy. When the top of the rotation and back of the bullpen are staffed with older pitchers, it’s a gamble. So far, the Mets are losing on their wager.

Johnluke Chaparro

What has me most worried about the Mets right now is the state of the starting pitching. Right now, even though the offense is sputtering, there seems to be some life within the bats. The pitching on the other hand, outside of Adam Ottavino and David Robertson, have shown no signs of consistency. The early lack of production from big stars like Max Scherzer and the absence of Justin Verlander plus the lack of strong performances from Tylor Megill, David Peterson and Carlos Carrasco is troublesome to say the least.

The bullpen suffers from the same issues outside of Ottavino and Robertson, where it has struggled to find someone who can hold the fort consistently. That’s my main worry right now.

Chris Bello

Max Scherzer is the biggest concern so far this season for the Mets. The $40 million man has a startling 5.53 ERA and meager 7.9 strikeouts per nine innings in his age 38 season, and has given up six home runs in 22 2/3 innings. The advanced statistics aren’t pretty either, as opposing batters have a 91 mph average exit velocity off the future hall of famer. Scherzer spoke to the New York Post on May 8, citing a lingering back issue as the reason for his overall struggles, and could join multiple Mets’ starters on the IL. The Mets’ success in 2023 was dependent on Scherzer and Verlander’s success, and without the impact from those two, the team has stumbled to a 17-18 record through the first week of May.

Christian De Block

My biggest concern is the team’s pitching, especially in the rotation. Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Carlos Carrasco and José Quintana have already dealt with various injuries, some of which have been more significant than others. I fear that this veteran staff may not be able to stay healthy enough over the course of a 162-game season.

The offense will come and I believe the bullpen has some really solid arms, but the rotation continues to be a huge question mark. If they cannot perform, it is hard to envision a scenario where the Mets will be a true contender within the National League.

James Villani

As could of very well been the case entering the season (due to age and potential regression), the rotation is by far the most prominent issue regarding the Mets. The Mets have had to rely on several who are most better served for the minors right now: Tylor Megill (6.19 xERA), David Peterson (5.30 xERA), and Joey Lucchesi (6.23 xERA). Further, their big guns of Justin Verlander (injury), Max Scherzer (injuries and 5.23 xERA), and Kodai Senga (8th percentile in BB%) have all either struggled/not been available for a large part of the season.

Not to mention, both Carlos Carrasco and José Quintana have also been on the shelf. Ultimately, Verlander being back should help a ton, Senga should be able to slowly emerge as a good number three, and it would be a tad surprising if Scherzer didn’t figure it out. However, as the risk was entering the season, the rotation is still very old and injuries/regression can very well keep appearing.

There are still huge question marks surrounding the fourth and fifth roles even with Verlander – Scherzer – Senga littering the top of the rotation.

Michelle Ioannou

Is it really the start of a Mets season if we’re not facing big injuries that are affecting our pitchers? I feel like we’ve been here before…

Ross Bentley

While I certainly agree with what others have said about the rotation, bullpen, and lineup, I’d also like to point out that I’ve been particularly flummoxed with how poorly the Mets have been playing against bad teams. Their current stretch of losing 12 out of 15 games is bad enough against any competition, but the fact that that stretch has included series losses to the Nationals and Rockies (and the potential of another one to the Reds) and a sweep by the Tigers is almost hard to believe.

Last season, the Mets hardly, if ever, dropped series against bad teams, which is how they were able to accumulate 101 wins. You would think games against lineups as bad as the Tigers and Nats, or pitching staffs as poor as the Rockies, would give the Mets plenty of opportunities to work out their issues, but the opposite is actually what has happened. Now, things are about to pick up, and this upcoming four-game set in Washington takes on way more significance than any early May series should.

Following the Nats, the Mets have three games against the best team in baseball in the Tampa Bay Rays, and also have series against Cleveland, the Cubs, and the Phillies before the end of the month. If they keep playing the way they are now in those games, the team could be in for a historically bad month that could be impossible to recover from.