Mike's Mets - Lowered Expectations

By Mike Steffanos

Is this as good as it gets for the 2023 New York Mets?

This is my third try to write about the New York Mets this week. I went deep into analysis twice, and both times I got to a point where I had just output hundreds of words that just felt like restatements of things I had already written about the 2023 Mets. So I finally decided to sh*tcan the deep analysis and touch on some of the basics. I'm confident that almost everyone who bothers to read my stuff is a serious Mets fan. Like me, you are also likely to be just a bit worn down from rooting for such a maddeningly inconsistent team that feels a bit too much like too many of the pre-Cohen Mets clubs.

The show MAD TV aired on Fox for 14 seasons from 1995-2009. The network's answer to the venerable SNL was never a big ratings hit, but it had some moments. One of my favorites was an ongoing series of sketches for the "Lowered Expectations" Dating Service for folks described in the initial segment as "chronically rejected singles" who were "desirably impaired ." The fictional dating videos often made me chuckle. I've often thought back to them over the years in the context of my Mets fandom as seasons descended from "win the World Series" to "make the playoffs" to "finish above .500" to "don't be a complete embarrassment." And those were just the seasons that began with any positive expectations at all.

Pre-season expectations are certainly higher since Steve Cohen bought the club, but lately, I have been experiencing those old "Lowered Expectations" feelings from the Wilpon era. My "date" for 2023 features a club with a record payroll that can't seem to keep itself above the .500 mark. The heady excitement from back in December when the Mets reportedly signed Carlos Correa seems like it happened years ago. Meanwhile, the current Mets club shows small signs from time to time that things might get better, only to fall back to frustrating losses where they barely muster any fight on offense. Dropping all 3 games at home to a Blue Jays club that hasn't been great themselves this season is only the latest bite from the sh*t sandwich this team has been. The Mets have once again fallen back to the .500 mark.

There are plenty of obvious reasons why this season has gone wrong. The starting pitching was a mess for quite a while, leading to many of the Mets' early struggles. It's showing signs of stabilizing some as of late, but then Sunday, Kodai Senga, who has been excellent at home, delivered a clunker when the Mets needed him to pitch well. But Senga is like most Japanese pitchers in their first year here in the States. The first season is always a challenge for a Japanese import pitcher to get used to all the differences in American baseball: the schedule, the ball, the travel, etc. It's a process, but his teammates' lack of good play makes Senga's struggles stand out more.

The hope, of course, is that Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer can stay healthy and productive for the rest of the season. That would certainly go a long way toward stabilizing things, but the club still has to score runs for these guys. The offense has been infuriatingly inconsistent, scoring runs in bunches when the Mets' pitching is bad, then almost silent when they get a good effort from a starting pitcher.

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