The season has not been what we expected so far and our team here at MMO has a lot of thoughts about it. We’re sure you do as well. What do you believe has been the biggest disappointment of the season so far? Here’s what we think. Christian De Block I am most disappointed by […]
The post MMO Roundtable: Biggest Disappointments Of The Season So Far appeared first on Metsmerized Online.
The season has not been what we expected so far and our team here at MMO has a lot of thoughts about it. We’re sure you do as well.
What do you believe has been the biggest disappointment of the season so far? Here’s what we think.
Jeff McNeil. Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
I am most disappointed by the inconsistencies of the offense as a whole. In 2022, the Mets scored 4.73 runs per game, the fifth-best mark in baseball. Two years later, and they are at 4.27 runs per game, which ranks No. 16 in the league. As a collective, we know this group of hitters has more in them. Francisco Lindor has yet to find a rhythm while Pete Alonso went through an extended stretch where he couldn’t find a base knock. From top to bottom, we can find those kind of examples.
The pitching has been good for the most part, which was believed to be a weak point coming into the season. If the lineup can hold up their end, I have confidence that this team can still return to the postseason.
The mainstays on offense, outside of Brandon Nimmo, have been really frustrating. I don’t feel we’ve seen Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor hot at the same time while Jeff McNeil hasn’t been hot at all. The pitching has been surprising and solid across the board. The offense will carry this team to the wild card, but the guys who’ve been around for a while just aren’t getting it done.
It’s hard not to watch a game in 2024 and find something to be disappointed in as a Mets fan, unfortunately. However, what fans and pundits believed would be our weakness heading into the season (pitching) has been their greatest strength. The team leads the league currently in walks, and that’s been the total killer in games.
But the real killer is the lack of offense. While you can’t win games if you let the other team score, you can’t win if you can’t even get on the board. It’s a head-scratcher because the team isn’t at the bottom of the league in strikeouts, hits, or home runs — they have actually struck out the least among any team in the NL with 384.
However, the team just has not found their groove. Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil and Starling Marte haven’t found their strides. Pete Alonso is getting there, and Brandon Nimmo is teetering on the line of looking like himself and just running into bad luck. There doesn’t seem to be a sense of desperation to win that the 2022 team had — it all just feels a bit lackluster at times.
Jeff McNeil. While I’m not one to really single a guy out when the whole team is underperforming, McNeil’s struggles seem to be the one that disappoints me the most. Now, some people say that Lindor is struggling as well, and they’d be right, so why not also mention him? The Lindor discourse is far greater currently and while he certainly hasn’t been up to par, he’s shown flashes in different moments that prove he can be the Lindor we know and love.
I don’t see that with McNeil. It feels like it’s gone on for some time now, but it always seems that whenever McNeil is at the plate in a crucial situation, he either grounds out or pops up. The 2022 McNeil who won a batting title with timely hitting seems a bit lost these days. There isn’t this sense of urgency in his at-bats that used to be prevalent in the past.
I really like McNeil and there’s still a talented ball player there, but there’s a reason why two managers have him slotted down in the lineup, when in reality, a guy like him should be hitting third.
I was really tempted to go with Jeff McNeil, but expectations were already not that high for him going into the year. They weren’t LOW, but they were also not nearly as lofty as they were for my biggest disappointment so far — Pete Alonso.
Yes, I know he has 10 long balls and is far from the worst hitter in this dismal lineup, but he was supposed to be so much better. His 2023 season was … below his standard. That feels crazy to write for a season with 46 home runs, but it’s true. In MLB history — going all the way back to the 1800s — there are only two seasons where a player hit over 45 home runs and still had an OPS below .825: 2023 Pete Alonso (.822) and 2023 Kyle Schwarber (.817). Usually, when someone hits a monster number of home runs, it’s a part of what is a great all-around offensive campaign. That wasn’t the case for Pete last year, posting his lowest full-season OPS in his career.
Going into 2024, I hoped that it was an outlier. His .217 batting average and .318 on-base percentage were both considerably lower than what he usually put up, so it seemed reasonable to think those numbers would rebound. That hasn’t happened yet. He looks worse than he did last year, and while I still expect his mid-.700s OPS to rebound to the low-.800s like last year, I’m not as confident that will be the case with his batting average or on-base percentage anymore. In a contract year, when so many players seem to elevate their game, the fact Pete is struggling even more is really disheartening. Is this all Pete is now? Kyle Schwarber? No disrespect intended to Schwarber, he’s great at what he does, but until last year Pete wasn’t a one-dimensional power hitter. It’s very disappointing, and makes me start to question if he should be re-signed.
The Mets are facing a difficult predicament they find themselves in way too often: their offense isn’t up to par. While there are positive signs under the hood, like the club’s .326 xwOBA and .306 wOBA, several offensive stalwarts haven’t performed up to expectations. Brett Baty hasn’t taken the leap, Francisco Alvarez is hurt, and both Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso have been inconsistent.
Meanwhile, Jeff McNeil is falling further into the doldrums. McNeil, always the tinkerer, has reengineered his swing to flare and get on top of the ball more often. This has resulted into a bevy of ground-outs around the dirt. His xSLG, barrel rate and xwOBAcon are all among the majors’ lowest.
Compounding the issue, New York doesn’t have a Plan B ready at the keystone amid his struggles. Luisangel Acuña has flexed his defensive skills, but little else in Syracuse. McNeil must rebound for the Mets to earn a postseason berth in 2024.
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