I know what you're thinking. $364 million oughta get you more than a .500 record after 54 games. Steve Cohen should get a refund. This was not how the script was written back in April, I can assure you. Yes, there were some concerns going into the season - like the back end of the bullpen - but surely not this many. Apart from Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso - who's on pace to hit 60 home runs this season - and Francisco Alvarez - who smacked his 8th home run of the season Sunday, and is making a case for rookie of the year, there isn't one player on this team that is pulling his weight.
Let's start with the top dogs in order of disappointment.
Justin Verlander: The ex-Astro and three-time Cy Young award winner was supposed to be the ace of this staff. As of this writing, he is 2-2 with a 4.80 ERA. The only reason he didn't lose his last start was because the Mets bailed him out by scoring six runs. For the $43 million Cohen is paying him, this guy should be much better than he is.
Mark Canha / Tommy Pham: If you combined both these players' stats, you still wouldn't have an everyday left fielder, that's how bad they've been this season. Despite going 3-4 with 4 RBIs Sunday at Colorado, Pham has been, by far, the worst of this uninspiring duo. About the only redeeming quality he has going for him is that he's only costing Cohen $5 million this season, which for baseball players is practically minimum wage these days. It's unfathomable that Billy Eppler couldn't find a legitimate left fielder.
Daniel Vogelbach: Frankly, I'm at a loss to explain how a DH who's batting a paltry .223 with only 2 home runs and 13 RBIs is still in this lineup. The Mets would be better off letting their pitchers hit. Just Imagine what Shohei Ohtani would do in this lineup?
Buck Showalter: While Buck may have been dealt a bad hand courtesy of a putrid bullpen and a starting rotation that has struggled to get out of the 4th inning, he has made some bewildering moves this season. Two of them occurred Sunday. The first was when he elected to start Starling Marte in center field over Nimmo, despite Marte not playing there in two years. It backfired when Marte was unable to catch a line drive to deep left center that led to the Rockies scoring three runs in the bottom of the 4th. He then outdid himself by allowing Stephen Nogosek to get smacked around in the bottom of the 5th without anyone up in the bullpen. The Rockies scored five runs in the inning. That's eight runs in a game the Mets lost 11-10.
Francisco Lindor: Ironically, Lindor is on pace to finish the season with 27 home runs and 117 RBIs. Yet the all-star, gold glove shortstop has been very inconsistent at the plate, batting only .225 with an on-base-percentage of .295 and a team-leading 53 strikeouts. He needs to get back to what he was last season when he batted .270, with an OBP of .339, 26 homers with 107 RBIs. That's the player the Mets were expecting when they signed him to a 10 year $341 million contract.
The Bullpen: Going into the season, the main concern for the Mets was finding someone to replace Edwin Diaz as the closer. While David Robertson has filled in admirably, the rest of this group consists mainly of mop up guys and throwaways from other teams. Another Eppler epic fail.
Max Scherzer: The other $43 million man, Scherzer hasn't been nearly as bad as Verlander, but he's hardly been lights out. The Mets can ill afford to have either of these two starters be anything other than elite.
Tylor Megill: In six starts this season, Megill has gone more than five innings twice. In his last start, he was staked to a 6-2 lead but couldn't hold it. This is Megill's third season with the Mets and he has yet to establish himself as a reliable starter.
The good news is there are 108 games left in the season. No team wins the pennant in May. As bad as the Mets have played, they're only one game out of a wild card spot. The infusion of talent from Syracuse is already making a difference. Brett Baty has supplanted Eduardo Escobar at 3rd base, Alvarez is now the everyday catcher, and Mark Vientos is finally getting a shot at DH.
But it's going to take more than a just few kids to turn things around. The Mets need length out of their starters. They're 13-0 when they go at least six innings. 13 games out of 54 is not gonna cut it. No team can win putting that kind of strain on its bullpen, especially this team with this bullpen.
Both Eppler and Showalter need to step it up, as well. The former needs to fix this bullpen and the latter needs to stop being so stubborn with the lineup. If a player isn't performing up to expectations, he needs to be benched in favor of a player with the hot hand. The Rangers fired Gerard Gallant for basically doing the same thing Buck has been doing all season long. And while Cohen is a patient man, there's a limit to his patience, especially when he's dropping $364 million.
Bottom line: it's still early, but early has a nasty habit of getting late pretty quick.
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