30 Teams In 30 Days: Don't Expect Much From The Mets In 2024
I’m not a Mets fan, but I do find myself rooting for them on occasion. I love what Steve Cohen was trying to do with this organization. And while I know a lot of their fans are very disappointed with the way this offseason went down, I do have to defend them, kind of. This wasn’t a great free-agent class. They made a serious push for Yamamoto, and he ended up going to the Dodgers. I feel like that was inevitable once Ohtani announced that he was going to Los Angeles as well. People are really down in the Mets right now. I don’t expect them to be in contention for the National League East, but I do think they’ll be a little bit more competitive than people think. As much of a disaster as last year was, and it was one of the biggest disasters in the history of New York Mets baseball, I do feel like that was the worst-case scenario. Edwin Diaz is back, as are Lindor and Alonso, who appear to be in full health. I do think some of the youngsters like Francisco Alvarez will turn out to be pretty darn good major league ball players.
If Kodai Senga is out for a long time then it kind of changes how I feel about a lot of this. I don’t see this team having a ton of problems scoring runs, considering who’s at the top of that order, but their pitching staff is going to be a serious question mark. It’s really bizarre because it was not that long ago, this was a rotation that ran very deep. Now it seems like they’re relying on Senga and a lot of over-the-hill veterans to give them innings.
Even though I don’t see the Mets setting the world on fire this year, I don’t think that all hope is lost regarding their organization. Steve Cohen is going to continue to spend. I do think next offseason, they’ll make a huge push for Juan Soto, and they’ll find themselves back in contention in a minute. I know that it’s remarkably disappointing because this was a 100-win ball club in 2022, but this is a very tough division to win in. Re-sign Peter Alonso and make some other moves in free agency, and this can be a scary team in 2025. As for this year, I wouldn’t expect a whole lot.