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The story of Carlos Carrasco‘s career is one of strength and resiliency but the recently turned 36-year-old might be nearing the end.

Carrasco has not been the trade piece the Mets sought when they added him with Francisco Lindor in 2021. Carrasco was coming off abbreviated seasons as he battled a leukemia diagnosis in 2019 and the shortened 2020 season. The trend continued his first as a New York Met. In 2021 Carrasco tossed 53 2/3 innings. That makes it all the more surprising that at 35 he was one of the Mets most durable arms, starting 29 games for them in 2022.

Unfortunately, Carrasco’s arm isn’t throwing what it used to. That’s trouble for the Mets who already had to dip into their top two reserve arms and we’re on Game 5 of the season.

Carrasco’s velocity was down significantly. He lost over two miles on his fastball from last year’s average of 93.2 to 01.1 and he experienced similar dips on his breaking pitches.

Carrasco’s slowest fastball was 88.7 mph, it resulted in a two-run home run by Brian Anderson in the fourth inning.

What adds to the struggles for Carrasco is his spring wasn’t particularly good either. His last start was March 17 when he built up to 57 pitches. He tossed 96 on Monday but the velocity kept declining. Maybe it’s the pitch clock or maybe it’s something else but the initial signs show that his arm might not be able to keep up for a full season.

Carrasco ranked 181st last season in pitch tempo for an average time of 17.7 between pitches with the bases empty. Now he has to speed up by 2.7 seconds with the bases empty.

Hopefully, it’s something Carrasco can overcome as the season rolls on but the Mets might need to look outside the organization for more immediate help if Carrasco cannot go.

Some players on the Mets have yet to realize the season started. Unfortunately it’s the three most important.

Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil combined for another clunker, combining to go 0-for-9 with two walks and three strikeouts. Even in the small sample size, none of them have been able to get on base with any consistency.

Lindor is batting .143, Alonso .167, and McNeil .190. You can only assume they’ll pick it up but it’s not the start the Mets were looking for after shipping all three off to the World Baseball Classic in March.

Really no Met has come out of the gates firing offensively except for Omar Narvaez and Tommy Pham being responsible for four of the Mets five runs in Sunday’s 5-1 win over Miami.

Although no one is feeling the pressure quite like Eduardo Escobar. He has one hit in 16 at-bats with one walk and seven strikeouts. Brett Baty should’ve made the team out of camp and the Mets shouldn’t hesitate to fix that mistake.

Tim Locastro is really trying to steal the crown of hit by pitch king from Mark Canha.

Locastro has been hit by three pitches in four plate appearances. Last season, Canha was hit a league-high 28 times as the Mets set the record for most times hit by a pitch in a single season. Canha also led baseball with 27 HBP in 2021.

Locastro has a penchant for leaning his elbow down into the zone. Back in 2019, he was hit 22 times in 250 plate appearances. Canha set his career high last year after 542.

The strategy is at least working for now. Of the three times he’s been on base he’s scored twice.

Having some fun with numbers, using Fangraphs games played percentage projections, Locastro would be hit by a pitch 81 times in 122 plate appearances. That’s got to be worth at least 1.0 fWAR, right?

Locastro has a very specific skill set. The more he’s on base the better. Hopefully he’ll get a chance to show off his speed soon as players across the big leagues are taking ample advantage of the new base stealing rules.