3 Things To Improve All 30 Teams — The New York Mets
The 2021 Mets finished the season with a record of 77–85, good enough for 3rd place in the top heavy NL East. After putting up a good fight for the NL East crown for most of the season, they faded down the stretch allowing the Atlanta Braves to win the East and the Philadelphia Phillies to finish 2nd. The Mets, behind owner Steve Cohen, have gone all in this season as they have spent $258,500,000 in free agency to shore up holes in their roster. But will it be enough? Let’s see what we can improve upon from their disappointing 2021.
1. Keep Jacob deGrom Healthy
It’s no secret that Jacob deGrom is the best pitcher currently in the game. With a career line of a 2.50 ERA with 1,505 strikeouts and an ERA+ of 157 over 1,261.2 innings and 198 starts, there’s no denying the dominance he has had since debuting for the Mets in 2014.
Jacob deGrom was having one of the best pitching seasons in the history of the game in 2021. He had an ERA of 1.08 with 146 strikeouts and a 373 ERA+ (just to reiterate, that means he was 273% better than league average), but only over 92 innings and 15 starts. For only the second time in his Major League career, the injury bug hit deGrom hard.
Coming in to his age 34 season, he is not getting any younger. The wear and tear on his arm is only increasing with every pitch and the Mets can’t afford to have him miss a majority of the season again this year. Even with the injury and the missed time in 2020, deGrom led the Mets in bWAR (Wins Above Replacement) with 5. If deGrom can pitch at that same level this season, and can make 32 starts, the Mets would add another 5 wins to their total.
2. Fix Jeff McNeil
1 time All Star Jeff McNeil is coming into his 5th Major League season, all with the Mets. Over that time he has a career line of .299/.364/.459 with a 124 OPS+. His career numbers were, much higher than that though as he is coming off of what has been his worst season so far. In 2021, he carried a line of .251/.319/.360 and had an OPS+ of 88.
Diving deeper into his rate stats, you’ll find a 2021 BABIP of .280 which is down from his career BABIP of .324 by .44. This could definitely be a sign of hitting into some bad luck. You’ll also find that he pulled the ball much less in 2021 than he has the rest of his career. In 2021, he pulled the ball 25.8% of the time compared to a career rate of 31.1%. There’s nothing wrong with being a hitter that can spray it to all fields, but at some point you have to realize that the thing you changed isn’t working and it’s time to go back to what you know and have been succesful with. Should McNeil go back to pulling the ball a little more and hit into a little bit better luck, the Mets would add 2 more wins to their total.
3. Get 30+ Starts Out Of Scherzer
Over half of the money the Mets have spent in free agency this offseason went to Max Scherzer on a 3 year, $130 million deal. The 3 time Cy Young winner and 8 time All Star is coming into his age 37 season, and just recently the injuries have started to catch up to him. 2019 and 2021 were the first full seasons since 2012 that Max did not eclipse the 200 inning mark, and it was mostly just nagging muscle problems.
Over his 14 year career, Max has a career ERA of 3.16 with 3,020 strikeouts over 2,536.2 innings and 398 starts. Just 2 starts away from 400 in his career, the future first ballot Hall of Famer looks to continue his dominance as the Mets number 2 behind deGrom. Should he stay healthy, he will definitely give the Mets rotation a huge boost and if he makes 30+ starts, he’ll add 2 wins to their 2021 total.
Should deGrom and Scherzer stay healthy and McNeil get his offensive production back, the Mets will add a total of 9 wins to their 2021 total and that’s not even considering the other pieces they added in free agency or Robinson Cano coming back from suspension. This would give the Mets a record of 86–76 which would give them 2nd in the NL East and a WC spot. Anything can happen once you’re playing in October. Especially with what is probably the best 1–2 starting pitching punch in baseball.
This has been the 19th entry in our series in which we take a deep dive into all 30 teams individually and see what 3 things we can do so that their 2022 is better than their 2021. Previous entries include the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Guardians, the Colorado Rockies, the Detroit Tigers, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles, the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, and the New York Yankees. Follow me on Twitter @TroyBrock1993 for updates and other sports musings. Next up will be the Oakland Athletics!
