Who Do You Feel Good About On This Team?

There have been two constants for the Mets the last four weeks: the played on a day that ended in a “y,” and they left fans wondering how much worse it can get.

Even on days like Sunday, when the team finally broke out for eight runs in an inning their regularly scheduled game, they didn’t score a run outside of that frame. And just hours earlier, they gave the lead up—twice!—to C.J. Abrams, who might’ve bought himself two more years of hope from the Nationals based on his performances against the Mets alone. (Three of his four home runs and nine of his 27 hardest hit balls have come against the Mets, though just 15% of the Nats’ games have come against New York.)

The starting pitching remains woefully insufficient. Buck Showalter waits to put his best relievers in the game, and when he does, he often leaves them in too long for comfort. Since April 22, when the team began a stretch of winning just six games in 21 tries, the offense has produced 67 runs—just over three runs per game, their lowest stretch in that many games the dog days of 2021. The June swoon came early.

But you know this. You’ve watched the games, too. So let’s dig deeper. Who on this team makes you feel good when they’re at-bat right now?

I’ve got Brandon Nimmo. You?

Two through nine, outside of a power surge from Pete Alonso in mid-April, have been as inconsistent for a stretch as the team has seen in two years. If Starling Marte is finally coming around, Jeff McNeil’s peppered batted balls aren’t finding grass. If Mark Canha finally puts some at-bats together, Pete Alonso’s actually putting up a negative WAR with an isolated slugging percentage in the mid .100s.

And who makes you feel good starting a game right now?

When the starters allow a first inning run in 11 of 13 games, that would be no one.

And who in the bullpen make you feel good when they come in with a lead?

David Robertson? Drew Smith when his fastball is working?

And finally, do you feel good about the guy turning in the lineup card? Or how about the pitching coach, whose staff is performing—both indivually and as a whole—worse on just about every level than last year. Or how about the hitting-coach-turned-bench-coach, whose early season additions and inputs have either failed or have gone in manager’s ear and out the other? I don’t need to scroll far into a comment section to know you don’t feel great about Billy Eppler.

Eternal optimism, wishing those fly outs to the warning track would drop in for doubles, and playing for the next day won’t turn this around. Better play does. We’re past watching the Mets play bad stretch of baseball. We’re leaning toward the Mets settling in as one of the worst teams in the majors. Rivka raised an excellent question after the Reds series: does losing to all of the bad teams mean you’re one of them? The fact no one watching can staunchly say no is all the answer needed right now.

Yes, the Padres aren’t playing great. The Phillies aren’t playing great either. And hey! Those same Phillies fired their manager two months into the season before going to the World Series last year! So what’s it going to get the Mets back on track?

Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio aren’t—nor should they be expected to be—the ones to stir shit up. (Brett Baty and Francisco Álvarez shouldn’t take that burden, either, no matter if they’ve provided upgrades at their positions.) It’s probably too early for trade season. The call is going to come from inside the house. It’s the guys on the 26-man roster today who are going to decide if this team gets turned around over the next month. Do you feel good right now that it’s going to happen?