Mets look to put their 2023 season behind them by finishing with a record of 75 wins and 87 losses putting them in 4th place in the division and 12 games under .500 and 29 games back from their first place rivals, the Atlanta Braves. With the old owners, the Wilpons, gone, and the new hiring of David Stearns, the Mets president of baseball operations, the Mets looked to get a whole new fresh start to an organization that hasn’t won anything big since 1986 and have only appeared in one World Series since. That was in 2015 against the Kansas City Royals who ended up winning the series and placing the New York Mets, as well as their fans, back in misery, something to which most Mets fans, including myself, are now accustomed.
With the 2024 season about to begin, the Mets took a whole different approach when they headed into the offseason. The Mets knew they weren’t going all in and signing free agents like Juan Soto, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and many more. It would cost a lot of money for the Mets that would put them over their payroll. Instead they went for depth and signed a few free agents that were average and below average players.
The biggest weakness for the team heading into 2024 was their pitching staff. The Mets traded away both Cy Young award winners Justin Verlander along with Max Scherzer ahead of last year’s deadline, along with a few other Mets players who had one year left remaining on their contracts. But with the rise of their newest addition to their pitching rotation, Kodai Senga led the team in Wins, Strikeouts and WHIP.
However, just a few days ago, news broke out that all star pitcher Kodai Senga felt pain and fatigue in his arm and had an MRI on it on Wednesday February, 21. It was confirmed that he has a moderate strain in his right shoulder and will start the 2024 season on the injured list. The Mets Ace pitcher will be sidelined until his symptoms subside. For the last three consecutive years, the New York Mets expected opening day pitcher has been injured before the season has even started. In 2022, it was Jacob Degrom, last year it was Justin Verlander, and now this year, Kodai Senga.
Mets second baseman and outfielder Jeff McNeil has also been battling some left bicep soreness, but it did not require an MRI. A serious injury was avoided before this upcoming season. The Mets’ new manager, Carlos Mendoza, said on Tuesday, March 5, that McNeil is feeling a lot better and could return back very soon.
As a Mets fan, I don’t really expect too much from this year after what happened last year. The team we put together for this upcoming season does not look promising at all. The Mets are projected to win 84 games this season which would slide them into the last wild card spot for the playoffs. If all the pieces to this Mets team clicks this year and everyone contributes for this team, just maybe they can grab a playoff spot and win a playoff series. It’s not going to be easy though.
Over the offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed some key players like two way player superstar Shohei Ohtani, Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, another elite pitcher with Tyler Glasnow, and they also signed outfielder Teoscar Hernandez. The Dodgers are one of the best teams in the league alongside the Mets division rival in the Atlanta Braves, the Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Miami Marlins–and that’s just in the National League. The Mets have a lot of work to do if they want to compete with the best and need their star players like shortstop Francisco Lindor and first baseman Pete Alonso to step up big and win games for them this season.
Mets fans know heartbreak all too well. In the year of 2007, the New York Mets entered the final three weeks of the regular season with a seven and a half game lead in the division with 17 games to go, about as close as you can get to a definite thing in baseball. But then things started to go downhill, and Mets pitchers in particular completely fell off during this final three week span. No one was worse than former Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, who got hammered three times during that final stretch of the season. He gave up seven runs in the third of an inning during the final game of the season. If the Mets had won they would have made the playoffs, instead they ended up losing 7-1 and blowing a seven and a half game lead in the division.
Another recent collapse in Mets history was just back during the 2022 season where the New York Mets had a one game lead over the fast and surging division rival, the Atlanta Braves. They would face off against one another for three games down in Atlanta for the season finale. All the Mets needed to do was win one game in that series and win the last three games to win the division. But they ended up being swept and finished the season with 101 wins tied with the Atlanta Braves, they would go on to win the division because of the tie breaker of head to head wins.
This season the Mets look to leave the past heartbreaks and collapses behind as they look towards the future and young prospects that they are relying on in the next couple of years to bring them a championship. Until then, fans must endure the rebuilding process of going from being one of the oldest teams in baseball the last two years to now trying to get younger and better overall.
https://nypost.com/2023/03/22/mets-kodai-senga-avoids-forkball-to-stay-healthy-for-season/
