Reese Kaplan -- A Trio of Bright Spots in a Rather Dark 2023 Season

Here's a difficult question for us Mets fans to ponder.  What has gone right for the club during this disappointing 2023 season?  After all, everyone was anticipating that the team would be at or near the top of the division, looking down at its competitors.  Obviously things did not progress as planned.  So in a nearly "If anything can go wrong, it will" type of perspective, one could assume that nothing at all positive has occurred.  That would be incorrect.

The unplanned and earlier-than-anticipated arrival of catcher Francisco Alvarez was done out of necessity.  Projected starting catcher Omar Narvaez was on the IL with a long term muscular issue and normal substitute Tomas Nido was having his own health issues which negatively affected his offense and defense while adjusting to a vision problem.  As a result the 21 year old Alvarez was summoned for what was anticipated to be a short term fill-in role as he had been known to have some defensive rough patches and normally took some time to adjust to each new level of pitching as he worked his way up the ladder.  

While he initially seemed to be consistent with this assessment, as he got more comfortable at the major league level he clearly not only was hitting long balls with authority, but he was also showing marked enthusiasm and progress in how he worked behind the plate.  While no one is going to confuse him with Johnny Bench in either side of his game, fans actually are happy he is here, glad he's a Met and look forward to a bright future seeing him continue to develop as a professional.

In the past the Mets have not generally done very well looking across the Pacific for reinforcements to the roster who started out with Japanese or Korean teams with great success  that they were then unable to translate to American big league ball.  Kaz Matsui, Tsuyoshi Shinjo and a variety of others would fit this pattern.  When we saw the stellar output Kodai Senga delivered over a period of 10 years in Japan, it sounded good on paper but folks were indeed jaded by the past and didn't know what to expect from the seemingly bargain priced starting pitcher.  

His initial start was a bit rough but as he got more and more accustomed to the American way of doing things he began pitching like an All Star over the past few months and indeed has grown into one of the few bright spots that the club can ink onto the roster for the next several years.

Another unknown commodity was the relief pitcher Brooks Raley who most recently toiled for the Tampa Bay Rays.  Looking over his stat sheet does not exactly fulfill you with a great deal of confidence.  Bouncing between his 24 year old rookie season in 2012 and his ending second year with the Astros in 2021 nothing suggested he was anything more than a filler at best.  However, in 2022 for the Rays he was on an entirely different plane.  He was in 60 games for his Florida employer, generated a WHIP under 1.000 and finished the season with an ERA of just 2.68.  

Billy Eppler made a trade with the Rays, sending low level pitching prospect Keyshawn Askew for the now 34 year old Raley.  Yes, it was good having a lefty for the pen but with just a single decent season under his belt it was not exactly something that set off fireworks.  However, whatever clicked for Raley last year seemed to continue during this first year with the Mets.  In 47 games thus far this year the control is a little off but the ERA is even better at 2.58.  Some people were calling for him to be traded in the big selloff, but with a modestly priced option for 2024 fans should be thankful he's still here.

While there were some good things done by folks who are no longer here, it doesn't make sense to reflect on people who have flown off elsewhere.  There were glimpses of good times from some newcomers on the mound and at the plate, but we're still in a growth period where the bad days are outnumbering the good ones.  Still, it's nice to see youngsters fulfilling the major league phase of their professional growth.  The trick between now and the end of the season is going to be allowing these prospects to play and not to have day-to-day assignments fulfilled by the AAAA cast of older rejects whose future is not behind a competitive place in the standings.