Some points to ponder:
- None of the five young players – Francisco Alvarez, Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, and Luisangel Acuña – whom the Mets were heavily counting on, have produced and actually look like they have regressed.
- The Mets starting pitching looked like they were the next coming of the 1986 rotation of Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Bobby Ojeda, and Rick Aguilera. But injuries to Kodai Senga and Griffin Canning, and sudden ineffectiveness of David Peterson, Tylor Megill, and Clay Holmes has that pitching lab looking like it botched an experiment or two.
- The Mets bullpen, aside from Edwin Diaz, has been WILDLY inconsistent and unreliable.
- The Mets hitting has been WILDLY inconsistent and unreliable.
- The Mets have a habit of overhyping their young players. And that can explain away the unmet expectations of Alvarez, Vientos, Baty, Mauricio, and Acuña. But getting Juan Soto was not the final piece of the puzzle, like Donn Clendenon in 1969 and Gary Carter for the 1986 (arrived in ’85) championship team. The Mets simply didn’t have the pieces, or enough pieces, for a serious run to the World Championship.
- Juan Soto will be the Mets Giancarlo Stanton. He can’t field. It won’t be long that Mets fans will feel about Soto the way Yankees fans feel about Stanton.
- The Mets outfield is not as strong as it should be after adding a $765 million player into the mix.
Remember the plan that Steve Cohen instituted when he took over the ownership of the Mets - that there would be a championship within a specified period of time. And that time has come. Because if Cohen’s projection is on the mark, then 2025 would provide a World Series title.
This team, the way it is currently constructed, is not a World Series championship team. And the way the team has been playing, at this pace, the Mets will slide to a record under the .500 mark in a couple of weeks.
