The more things change, the more they stay the same. That might not be true for many things in life, but it certainly feels that way for the 2019 New York Mets.
Hearing the news of Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, and Jacob deGrom representing the organization in the All-Star Game next week in Cleveland is great. However, it looks as if that’s one of the very few things they’ll have to look forward to when thinking about this current baseball season.
Just a couple weeks ago, the Mets were entering the first phase of this year’s Subway Series with a 32-33 record, which was kicking off a crucial stretch of games prior to the All-Star break. That was disappointing in itself, but they were still just five games out of first place at the time.
Although they’re off on Monday, New York has five games left before the break (two vs. the New York Yankees and three vs. the Philadelphia Phillies). It’s their last chance to salvage literally anything from this stretch, as they’re now 38-47 and are 12 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves.
I might be burying the lede here a little bit, but general manager Brodie Van Wagenen seemed rather hellbent on making moves that would make a significant difference in 2019 for this organization. It feels like things have been exactly the same during the the first half, which I alluded to a bit last week with regard to the lack of support deGrom is getting during a solid stretch of pitching.
So what exactly has been the déjà vu all over again the Mets are experiencing right now? Two things in particular stand out to me (and probably, just about everyone else).
Another Horrific June
If two months of the season (May and June) didn’t count in 2018, the Mets would’ve actually been a decent ball club. That’s not how this whole baseball thing goes, though. Their most recent brutal stretch of games unfortunately had me reminiscing about just how brutal last June was (I know, I need to find better things to do with my time).
| 2018 | Monthly Record | 2019 | Monthly Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| March | 2-0 | March | 2-1 |
| April | 15-9 | April | 13-13 |
| May | 10-18 | May | 13-15 |
| June | 5-21 | June | 10-18 |
This past month felt rather excruciating — especially since it included a seven-game losing streak and a bunch of gut-wrenching losses to the Phillies — but I wouldn’t have expected it to come within earshot of last year’s tailspin. Even if the downturn in performance wasn’t as drastic as the first three-plus months of 2018, that doesn’t mean it was any less tough to watch happen.
The one good (?) thing is that the Mets still have a chance to post a better pre-All-Star break record than last year’s 38-55 mark. For a squad that went through so many changes in the offseason, though, these records are way too similar.
Another Historically Bad Bullpen
This tweet is a few days old now, but it’s all that needs to be said about how bad the Mets’ bullpen has been in recent years:
Worst bullpens in Mets franchise history:
1) 2019 – 5.71 ERA**
2) 1962 – 5.66 ERA
3) 2018 – 4.96 ERA
4) 2017 – 4.82 ERA— Rich MacLeod (@richmacleod) June 29, 2019
I think I’ve stared at this tweet for a good five or 10 minutes, just wondering how exactly we’ve had the “fortune” of watching three of the four worst bullpens in franchise history in each of the last three seasons. Building a bullpen can be a bit of a crapshoot because of how volatile relief-pitcher performances are, but this is just absurd.
Based off BVW and company’s offseason additions, FanGraphs’ preseason projections had the Mets’ bullpen as one of the most valuable units in baseball when using fWAR as the barometer. This is a an unfortunate reminder that projections are just that: projections.
The Mets — who were viewed as a contending team on Opening Day — have had such an ineffective bullpen that their cumulative fWAR is in the same neighborhood as the Miami Marlins and Baltimore Orioles. This is the kind of company that will (continue to) get people fired. You’d think, at least.
It really just comes down to not having enough reliable arms for manager Mickey Callaway to turn to. Jeurys Familia has had a historically bad season thus far, and Robert Gsellman actually leads all Mets relievers with a 0.6 fWAR despite a 5.06 ERA. Edwin Diaz was supposed to be the crown jewel of the entire unit, yet he’s struggled to a 4.74 ERA and 1.97 homers allowed per nine innings through 32 frames.
The 2019 season was supposed to be different for the Mets. At least, that’s what Van Wagenen said would be the case. Unfortunately, it’s looking exactly like the year we just suffered through watching in 2018.
