The New York Mets have some good things to look forward to heading into this season: Matt Harvey is back, Zach Wheeler is good, Noah Syndergaard is still waiting in the wings. The New York Mets are ready to make a run at the playoffs in 2015!
There are only a couple of problems: the offense and the rest of the league.
Now that the Washington Nationals have 6 potential All-Star starters ready to take 5 rotation spots to go along with a very deep lineup which features speed, power, and the ability to get on base, they are the prohibitive favorites to repeat as NL East champs. That leaves the Mets fighting it out with the rest of the league for one of the two Wild Card spots–a.ka. the chance to have 162 games of baseball come down to one crapshoot.
Given the Mets pitching, they should actually feel pretty good going into that playoff game, but the fact remains that the team has to get there first and, as good as they might be at throwing the ball, you still can’t win if you don’t score. What follows is my projected Mets 2015 lineup, with my assessment of the player next to his name.
- Juan Lagares, Cf (Better than you might think)
- Curtis Granderson, Lf (Not as good as you might think)
- David Wright, 3b (Good, but not great. Not as good as you remember)
- Michael Cuddyer, Rf (Very overpaid. Still good though)
- Lucas Duda, 1b- (ehhhh)
- Daniel Murphy, 2b- (Actually a very good offensive second baseman)
- Travis d’Arnaud, C- (Not good yet, but could be)
- Wilmer Flores, ss- (Ahhhhhhh!! so so so badddddd)
This Mets lineup has two sneaky good guys, two guys who are regular good but not great, three guys who are fine, and one black hole. It’s a better lineup than the Phillies, Braves, and Diamondbacks (the dregs of the league), but is it really enough to compete with the Giants, Pirates, Marlins, and the vastly improved Padres? Those are the other Wild Card-ish teams they’ll likely be eyeing in the standings all year. I’m just not sure.
The Mets’ ace in the hole, so to speak, is of course their starting pitching. It’s not in the same class as the Nationals, but it’s really good and really deep. The Mets have four starters–Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard, and reigning rookie of the year Jacob deGrom–who could dominate on any given day and three guys that could all be very good number 5’s. Jon Niese, for instance, is a three on most teams (and the Ace of the Twins) but he’ll be slotted behind the Big Three (minus Syndergaard) in any potential playoff rotation.
The big unknown with the Mets is their payroll. The Wilpons refuse to spend given their Madoff problems, but the Mets play in New York and should have the financial capabilities to add a big piece mid-season if one becomes available. Maybe the Rockies will decide to move Troy Tulowitzki or the Padres will trade Justin Upton. If so, the Mets need to be right in the mix, dangling some of their excess starting pitching.
Frankly, there are some little pieces that I think could have helped this team along the way. From day one, the Mets maintained that they didn’t like free agent shortstop Everth Cabrera and weren’t interested in him. Why? He doesn’t hit but he plays solid defense and he’s fast as hell. He’s certainly a major league caliber shortstop who could be had for pennies given his steroid history and the fact that he was non-tendered by San Diego this fall. Cabrera is still out of a job. Go get him, Mets!
The bottom line is that the Mets have enough pitching and just enough hitting to be relevant all season and win maybe 86-87 games. But it seems the entirety of the NL is vastly improved this season (except the Braves) with the top three free agent starters all moving from the AL to the NL serving as just an example of the improvements across the board, and 87 wins might not be enough.
I look forward to Matt Harvey throwing meaningful innings in September in front of newly unemployed Jon Stewart and the rest of the Mets faithful.
-Max Frankel
