Reese Kaplan -- Some Good and Lots of Bad

With not more than 15% of the season gone many folks are pressing the panic button as the Mets are not playing like the contenders everyone thought they would be.  The starting pitching has been mostly bad, the bullpen mostly awful, the defense of Little League variety and the first few games suggested that the offense was still far behind the pitching.  That formula surely would lead to quite more losses than wins.

Still, no matter how badly the team has been playing, it has indeed been wonderful to see almost real baseball once again.  The calling of balls and strikes, the defensive shifts against the batter, the umpires’ calls on close plays and the all-too-elusive come-from-behind rallies in the late innings all reinforce what drew us to the game of baseball in the first place.  Win or lose, it’s still the game we love and there are indeed some good things to take away from the early part of the season.

For the great many of us who had written off the elder statesman Robinson Cano after his rough introduction to the National League in 2019, who here would have bet money he’d be hitting near .300 after this season began?  Yes, his defense is still suspect, his baserunning not the stuff of catcher nightmares and the power still not omnipresent.  However, the hitting is there and with luck will be there for the remainder of the 2020 mini-season.  

The DH role has been something of a rotation with Yoenis Cespedes, Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis all getting a shot at this newly defined role.  While none have stood out consistently, each has had his moments of glory (and power).  As much as traditionalists squawk about the change to the game that embraced the American League 37 years ago in 1973, the fact is that the addition of this role does add a dimension of offensive excitement to the game (and removes some of the decision making of the manager when the pitcher’s spot in the lineup comes due when runs are needed).  I’m betting the role will remain in 2021 and beyond.

The starting pitching from Jacob deGrom has been of high quality, but for the rest not so much.  Newcomer Michael Wacha had an awesome debut which caught a great many by surprise, but his second start was Porcellian in its badness.  The referenced starter from the Red Sox was incredibly bad and Steven Matz has been both up and down.  That type of starting pitching won’t contribute to postseason pitching unless they can shake off the bad ones to rust.

Now the bullpen is a bit harder to identify consistently good performances.  Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia, Dellin Betances, Seth Lugo, Justin Wilson and others have had their bad moments to go along with their good ones.  Call me crazy, but the few good results make me think that, like the starters, there is merely some rhythm that needs to be found to make the positive consistently outweigh the negative.

I’m not going to address the defense because frankly other than Andres Gimenez it’s been mostly awful.  Granted, some players are in new positions or simply out of practice, but defense was something preached heavily in the former Mets minor league system by now-fired Edgardo Alfonzo.  The results are not looking good early on and in this metric I have little confidence it will improve significantly.  

The managing has been mostly positive even if the playing has not.  Luis Rojas is not afraid of defensive switching late in the game.  He’s rotating people in and out of the lineup with mixed results.  There have not been any Terry Collins moments of incredulity yet, nor rookie rawness like Mickey Callaway.  Thus far he’s ranking in the positive even though his players are not helping his record show those results.  

It’s not good, but it can improve.  And it’s still baseball (minus the Marlins, Cardinals and others). 

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And speaking of Yoenis Cespedes, it ends as promised in literature, not with a bang but with a whimper. Adios. Stay away from boars.