How Much Should You Panic About The Mets’ Struggles?

With just over a month left in the 2024 season and the Wild Card race as tight as ever, the Mets find themselves in the thick of things. They had a scorching summer, producing one of the best records in baseball over June and July, which catapulted them into the postseason race. It’s a far cry from where they were at the beginning of the season when they looked like sure sellers.

Now, August is halfway over, and the Mets look to be reverting to common themes we’ve seen in the beginning months of the year. Struggling with runners in scoring position, pitchers unable to get out of innings and limit the running game, and sloppy defense. A couple of weeks ago, the Mets held onto the top seed in the Wild Card race. On August 13, they find themselves one game behind the Diamondbacks, Padres and Braves, with the Cardinals, Giants, Cubs and Reds close behind. Like I said, it’s a close race.

We’ve seen Mets fans panic way ahead of schedule, but we’ve also seen them panic at appropriate times. Now feels like the right time as the season begins to wind down, but how much should you really panic about their current struggles? Let’s analyze…

RISP

We watched the most recent series in Seattle and know how it went. The team scored one run the entire series, which came on a Jeff McNeil solo shot. On Friday, they were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Saturday, well, they didn’t even get a runner into scoring position. Then Sunday came, and they were once again 0-for-8 with RISP. No math is needed here to tell you it’s a lot of zeroes.

In July, the Mets had some of the league’s best numbers with runners in scoring position. Now, however, just a few weeks after that magical run, they plummeted to near last in the league, near the Chicago White Sox, who recently broke a franchise-worst 21-game losing streak. It’s something to be highly concerned about, if not the most important issue of concern for the Mets moving forward. If you can’t score runs, you can’t win games. It’s as simple as that.

The biggest culprits that hinder the Mets now are their usual sluggers, making it more concerning. Pete Alonso, in his walk year, is hitting just .205/.331/.384 with five homers and 36 RBIs in 112 at-bats with RISP in 2024. Francisco Alvarez, Brandon Nimmo and J.D. Martinez each had their hot streaks but haven’t been able to find that same form since.

PITCHING

The Mets led the league in walks for most of the season, but the White Sox squeaked past them (not by much). However, they have a high strikeout rate; they struck out the fifth most batters in all of baseball so far (1,060), which is third most in the NL.

Their bullpen seems to be stabilizing after being a notorious weak spot for most of the season. David Stearns proved he wasn’t afraid to make moves as needed, relieving Adrian Houser and Jake Diekman of their duties and replacing them with minor league arms and trade acquisitions Ryne Stanek, Phil Maton and Huascar Brazobán. Reinforcements are coming, as Reed Garrett was recently activated and Sean Reid-Foley and Dedniel Nuñez will soon follow in the coming weeks.

While the rotation has put in a few shaky starts as of late, the past road trip has been absolutely brutal with so many time zones and not much time for rest. Also, the bats haven’t been there to supplement, and the rotation has been one of the strengths of the season consistently, even with all of the blows it has taken with injury.

With everything falling into place and players returning from injury, the Mets rotation and bullpen will soon be at full strength. There’s been a lot of threading the needle between injuries to put out arms to keep the bullpen afloat, and now it’ll be exciting to see what it can do in the final month.

In terms of worrying, the Mets have depth, and there’s a chance we might even see the likes of Mike Vasil or Brandon Sproat before the season is over come September. Instead of panic, excitement is in the air.

STAR POWER

The lack of star power on a team full of them has been, well, concerning. When players are hot, they feel invincible, and when cold, it’s like they’ll never break from the slump. Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Francisco Alvarez, Edwin Díaz and Jeff McNeil have all found themselves in this spot this season. Even new trade acquisition Jesse Winker might be dancing this line. But at the end of the day, if the Seattle series showed the world anything, the offense will be the downfall of this 2024 team.

In the past 15 days, the team is hitting .236/.297/.359, tied for second worst average in the National League. They’ve hit the fewest home runs (9) and RBIs (37) and have the second least amount of hits (95). Before that, they were in the top seven in most hitting categories in the NL.

Luis Severino, Sean Manaea and company have all shown they can tango with the best of them this season in a pitchers’ duel. But to break that, somebody has to get a clutch hit. And right now, nobody is doing that for the Mets. Lindor was that guy for a while, and so was Nimmo, as was McNeil, but right now, nobody has stepped up in the final stretch.

Alonso is slowly picking things up, and his homers are returning just like McNeil is doing McNeil things. Lindor will find himself, as he always does, and Starling Marte will return soon to bring a much-needed jolt to this lineup. However, if these stars can’t figure things out fast, their Wild Card dreams will quickly fade away. For that reason, panic is appropriate.

TEMPERATURE OF CONCERN

Look, there’s a reason why the Mets were able to make such an incredible turnaround to their 2024 season. They are a good ball club. They have it in them to clinch a Wild Card spot. I’m not profusely sweating, but I’m also not sitting back and relaxing. I’m leaning in, breaking a little sweat as I watch each game because the race is so close.

The Mets’ season comes down to their next away trip. They’ll start with a four-game series in San Diego on the 22 and then move on to Arizona for a three-game series. The Padres and D-backs currently hold the top two Wild Card spots. While a lot can change, they’ve been two of the hottest teams in baseball the past few weeks. If the Mets can’t survive those two series, panic will set in a bit more. However, if they come out on the other side of things, I’ll feel a bit better about things.