Reese Kaplan -- A Slump Is Not the Same as a Losing Season

A lot of folks are mad...M-A-D mad...about how the Mets team is playing right now.  After the successful West Coast trip which was far better than what anyone could rightfully have expected, the last week or so has been just plain miserable.  

Right now there is blame to spread all around starting with the guys on the mound.  The starting pitching has been pretty horrific and the return of baseball criminal (in the umpires' minds, anyway) Max Scherzer's great return was anything but.  Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill are both north of the 4.00 ERA mark.  Dispatched starter David Peterson eclipsed 7.00.  If someone held a gun to your head and said which two starting pitchers on the Mets would have their best ERAs, not a single one among us would have said, "Well, naturally that would be Jose Butto and Joey Lucchesi!"

What's even more concerning is the superstar Justin Verlander due back from his injury stint to begin his Mets career versus his former club, the Detroit Tigers.  Not only is the showmanship of such a Game One over the top, but the expectation that once he arrives everything will turn around and be completely perfect is frankly ludicrous.  Yes, having Verlander out there every 5th game is better than some assembly of relievers tossed into the unfamiliar role of starting and then burning out a bullpen, but there is more wrong with the Mets club right now beside who is on the mound in the first inning.  

Then there is the hitting that's also a cause for concern.  Say it with me...the Mets have three hitters doing better than expected -- Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and desperate rookie call-up Brett Baty.  For awhile both middle of the order stars -- Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor -- looked to be hot but that ended rapidly.  

Mended Starling Marte hasn't put together a hot streak yet.  Mark Canha has had a few good swings but overall hasn't amounted to MLB starter material.  Both of the catchers are not contributing much at all with their bats, though Francisco Alvarez is starting to heat up a bit.  Oddly, everyone's butt of baseball jokes, Daniel Vogelbach, may not be hitting for much power but he's getting on base regularly and maintaining a bettter-than-his-career batting average.  

The bullpen has gotten a LOT of work due to the issues with the starting pitchers.  Some have been quite good like David Robertson who became the closer-by-default.  Drew Smith is pitching to a respectable 2.45 ERA.  After that it gets fairly ugly.  Even Adam Ottavino is above a 4.00 ERA.  I won't even recite the rest of them (including recently injured Brooks Raley).  

Suffice to say if your starters aren't getting it done and your relievers aren't getting it done, then there will be a lot of high scoring games required to remain on the W side of the results column.  Add in the hollow bats and it's easy to understand why the club is spiraling downward.

With poor results on the field, a lot of people are scrambling for answers to change things for the better.  Some have blamed manager Buck Showalter, but he's not the one throwing nor hitting the ball.  Some say it's undue patience with guys not getting it done like Tommy Pham, Eduardo Escobar and Tomas Nido.  Some call it a fear to promote hot minor leaguers like Ronny Mauricio and approaching .400-hitting Mark Vientos.  

The truth is that while those Syracuse Mets couldn't hurt, it also would be unfair to put the burden of a failing offense squarely on their young shoulders.  The bigger issue at the moment seems to be pitching moreso than hitting and addressing what was the secondary problem won't solve the primary one.  

One of the suggestions made by fellow Mets fans is that they start trading away assets to address their team's needs.  In this case since they've pretty much exhausted the arms in Syracuse, this approach isn't necessarily a bad one.  However, when folks saw the lack of value in trades like the one that brought them Darin Ruf there is a legitimate fear that a pressure-made and lopsided trade would happen again without the results they need.  

Pitchers are also getting cut by other clubs for performance, salary or other reasons, so while they are readily available it is not necessarily realistic to think a second coming of someone like Jeurys Familia who is in that situation will accomplish much of anything.  

Word is that starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco is due back before the end of May.  Love him or hate him, he's still better than much of what the Mets have trotted out there this season.  Similarly the imminent returns of some minor league hurlers who are dealing with injuries can't likely make anything worse. 

Right now they're in a slump.  There are no magic answers and no single new player is going to turn things around by himself.  If you want to blame Showalter for anything it could be his inability to keep his players focused.