The Marlins and the Nationals are amongst the most exciting teams in the Majors, but what about the other teams in the NL East? The Mets have also generated a lot of conversation around baseball with many believing that they too can make a run at playoff baseball in 2015.
There is cause for optimism in Queens. The Mets have an exciting young starting rotation and an experienced group of position players. If the Mets can score enough runs, there is no reason to believe they can’t make a run at a wild card given how much strong the current pitching is.
Position Players
Although not spectacular, the Mets are solid at every single position in the field although. The team’s unquestioned leader and face of the franchise David Wright is coming off of a mediocre year by his standards. He had an OPS of .698 and only 8 home runs. The Mets need a bounce back year from Wright in order to have any chance of making a playoff push in 2015.
In contrast, Lucas Duda had a breakout 2014 season wherein he slashed .253/.349/.481 with 30 HR on the back of a career high 16% home run/ flyball rate and a very solid 11.6% BB rate. Better contact on the pitch high and in helped him hit more home runs to right field than in any year before.
Daniel Murphy, Michael Cuddyer, and Curtis Granderson fill out the rest of the heart of the lineup. Juan Lagares is a Major League average offensive centerfielder, but his outstanding 28 DRS in CF rank him up there with Jason Heyward and Alex Gordon as the best defensive outfielders in the game today. Travis d’Aurnaud has a lot of offensive potential at catcher and Wilmer Flores, although not great at any single thing, is the best option the Mets have at shortstop in the organization. If the Mets can be one of the fifteen best hitting clubs in 2015, their outstanding pitching will give them a shot at the playoffs.
Starting Rotation
Even with the devastating news that Zack Wheeler would miss the entire 2015 season, the Mets still have to be hopeful about 2015.
Matt Harvey, who was arguably the best pitcher in baseball in 2013 ,will be returning from his own Tommy John surgery. If he pitches anywhere near as well as he did two years ago, he could stand a chance of winning a Cy Young award. Jacob deGrom won the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year and he deserved it posting a 2.69 ERA, striking out 25.5% of batters and only giving up a WHIP of 1.14. Bartolo Colon, Jon Niese, and Dillon Gee are not spectacular, but they know how to pitch to contact.
A player who could step in a fill the void left by Wheeler’s absence in the rotation is Noah Syndergaard. Syndergaard pitched at AAA Las Vegas last year, a notoriously hitter-friendly park in the Pacific Coast League, a very good hitter’s league. All things considered, Syndergaard still had a very good mark of 24.9% strikeout rate and a 7.4% walk rate with a 3.70 FIP and a 4.60. That latter mark is not very credible given the Syndergaard’s bad luck highlighted by a 382 BABIP and 12.2% HR/FB against. Syndergaard features a fastball-curveball-changeup mix, which are all plus pitches at the moment for such a young player.
A starting rotation that features the exciting youngsters Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard and is backed up by the experience of a Jon Niese or Bartolo Colon has to be in the conversation as one of the most interesting and solid ones in the Majors.
Bullpen
The Mets bullpen could be another strength for this team. Although not as decorated or as well recognized as many other outfits around the league, the Mets feature an exciting collection of relief arms. Relievers such as Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia and Bobby Parnell all throw hard and are very good options to close a game out after the seventh inning. What they need is to be more consistent and throw more strikes to be more convincing shutdown options.
If the Mets can get a bounce back season from Wright, 2014-level production from Duda and above average production from the position players, they can be a good offensive club and even play meaningful games in September and maybe even make the playoffs.