The Mets May Need A Personnel Change

The Mets came into the 2023 season with incredibly high expectations. After winning 101 games in 2022, the team with the largest payroll in MLB history was widely believed to be one of the best in all of baseball in 2023. They are currently 30-32 and have lost five straight games, their longest losing streak since September of 2021. Since this team, on paper, is certainly better than a sub .500 club, the organization may begin to look off the field for places to improve. Here are a few possible members of the organization who could be on the hot seat if the Mets’ season continues to spiral.

Jeremy Barnes

After serving as an assistant hitting coach in 2022, Jeremy Barnes was promoted to the lead hitting coach, while Eric Chávez was promoted to a bench coach. The Mets finished near the top of the league in nearly every hitting category in 2022, but the results have not been there this season under their 36-year-old hitting coach. They were in the top 10 in average, slugging percentage and OPS in 2022, but are now in the bottom 10 in all three categories. Outside of Brandon Nimmo, nearly all of the regulars from last year’s lineup have had a steep drop off from last season’s numbers. Pete Alonso has made up for his drop in average and OBP with his increased power, but the overall inconsistency from everyone in the lineup is a stark contrast to what made the 2022 Mets so tough to beat.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the Mets’ promotion of Barnes was partially due to other teams looking to pry him away from the Mets. Still, with so many of the same players from last year’s team getting drastically worse results, it is fair to wonder if the approach from the lead-hitting coach is doing more harm than good for this team.

Buck Showalter

Buck Showalter most likely isn’t to blame for most of his lineup regressing from last season and his starting rotation dealing with a number of injuries, but he is not blameless for the Mets’ struggles. He has made a number of head-scratching moves this season that has put the team in difficult spots, most recently pitching to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in an RBI spot with first base open with two outs in the ninth inning of a tie game. Rather than putting Guerrero on first base and facing Cavan Biggio, Showalter chose to have David Robertson attack Guerrero, which ended with a game-winning hit for Guerrero.

While bullpen decisions can often be second-guessed based on results, a decision that cannot be explained is the incredibly long leash that has been given to Daniel Vogelbach. While Vogelbach did have a productive start to his Mets career, he has given the Mets next to nothing over the past month. Mark Vientos has been with the Mets for three weeks and has taken 32 at-bats in that time. In that same time, Vogelbach has hit .088 with one extra-base hit in 34 at-bats. The Mets desperately need more from their DH spot, and until Vientos gets a legitimate run of consistent playing time, there is no way to know if he is capable of filling that role.

Billy Eppler

In his time as the Mets’ general manager, Billy Eppler has made plenty of big moves that have helped the team improve from the day he arrived. Injuries and struggles from the starting rotation have made the Mets’ thin bullpen a more glaring issue. The signing of Robertson has been a perfect fit for the Mets in the absence of Edwin Díaz, but they do not have the depth to survive short outings from the starting pitchers.

The most glaring issue for Eppler in his two years with the Mets is his inability to get value from the DH spot. The trade for Darin Ruf was heavily criticized even before Ruf’s disastrous tenure in New York simply because of how much Eppler gave up to get him. The Vogelbach trade worked well for the Mets in 2022, with Vogelbach having a strong finish to the season and Colin Holderman struggling with injuries and performance in Pittsburgh. This season, Holderman has put together a solid start to this season that the Mets surely could have used, cutting down on his walks and staying healthy over the first two months of the year. Vogelbach currently has a .639 OPS and a tenuous hold on a roster spot.

The signings of Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha, Omar Narváez, and José Quintana have been a mixed bag to this point. Max Scherzer has been mostly good in the regular season but has struggled in the most important starts of his Mets career. Justin Verlander missed the start of the season in 2023 and hasn’t been his dominant self this year, pitching to a 4.25 ERA and already giving up six home runs.

Overall, Eppler’s time with the Mets has featured plenty of moves with the backing of Steve Cohen’s deep pockets. Still, it’s fair to wonder just how good they’ve been if the Mets are two games under .500. Will Cohen give Eppler another trade deadline to prove he’s worthy of being the Mets’ top decision-maker?

Jeremy Hefner

Jeremy Hefner is in his fourth season as the Mets’ pitching coach. After having one of the top pitching staffs in 2022, the Mets’ staff has fallen into the bottom ten in most pitching categories. In fairness to Hefner, the number of injuries the Mets’ pitching staff has had would make any pitching coach’s job difficult. He found a way to navigate injuries to Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer in 2022, but the 2023 Mets have not had the same good fortune. The biggest setback is surely David Peterson, who pitched to a 3.83 ERA in 19 starts in 2022 before pitching to an 8.08 ERA and being demoted to Triple-A in 2023. The positive note for Hefner is that his veteran starters have been returning to form lately. Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Carlos Carrasco have all put together good starts over their last few outings. While not much is going right for the Mets these days, it does appear that the pitching staff is heading in the right direction.

The results from this team have not been encouraging, but there is still plenty of baseball left to be played. In just the last five years, we have seen two talented teams in the NL East have comeback from poor starts to make postseason runs. It is not a sure thing that a personnel change will turn the Mets’ season around, but if they continue to play like this, they may not have a choice but to try something.