Season in Review 2020:
The New York Mets finished third in a rather strong division of the NL East. Their win total of 86-76, which is the third highest win total for them in the past decade. The tale of the New York Mets has always been of mediocrity. They normally finish in the middle of the pack in the NL East, expect for the 2015 run they had which got squandered by the Royals. Putting those two in a World Series almost seems weird now doesn’t it? Any matter the Mets have some things to look forward to.
| Rk | Pos | Name | Age | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | TB | GDP | HBP | SH | SF | IBB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C | Wilson Ramos | 31 | 141 | 524 | 473 | 52 | 136 | 19 | 0 | 14 | 73 | 1 | 0 | 44 | 69 | .288 | .351 | .416 | .768 | 107 | 197 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| 2 | 1B | Pete Alonso | 24 | 161 | 693 | 597 | 103 | 155 | 30 | 2 | 53 | 120 | 1 | 0 | 72 | 183 | .260 | .358 | .583 | .941 | 148 | 348 | 13 | 21 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 3 | 2B | Robinson Cano* | 36 | 107 | 423 | 390 | 46 | 100 | 28 | 0 | 13 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 69 | .256 | .307 | .428 | .736 | 96 | 167 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | SS | Amed Rosario | 23 | 157 | 655 | 616 | 75 | 177 | 30 | 7 | 15 | 72 | 19 | 10 | 31 | 124 | .287 | .323 | .432 | .755 | 102 | 266 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 5 | 3B | Todd Frazier | 33 | 133 | 499 | 447 | 63 | 112 | 19 | 2 | 21 | 67 | 1 | 2 | 40 | 106 | .251 | .329 | .443 | .772 | 106 | 198 | 9 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | LF | J.D. Davis | 26 | 140 | 453 | 410 | 65 | 126 | 22 | 1 | 22 | 57 | 3 | 0 | 38 | 97 | .307 | .369 | .527 | .895 | 138 | 216 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 7 | CF | Juan Lagares | 30 | 133 | 285 | 258 | 38 | 55 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 27 | 4 | 1 | 22 | 75 | .213 | .279 | .326 | .605 | 63 | 84 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 8 | RF | Michael Conforto* | 26 | 151 | 648 | 549 | 90 | 141 | 29 | 1 | 33 | 92 | 7 | 2 | 84 | 149 | .257 | .363 | .494 | .856 | 128 | 271 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
This past year the Mets top 8 fielders look like this with Jeff McNeil coming in as the Utility man. This team was pretty solid overall and was capable of competing in the NL East. However, if they truly want to compete they will need to seek some improvement especially in Center Field with Juan Lagares, now gone. He left some slack for the rest of the team to pick up. The other surprise guy who did not perform up to his normal level was Robinson Cano. He was a little less than stellar this past year with a 93 wRC+ which is his second lowest of his career. I could see him make a bounce back and become a pivotal piece in a postseason run for these Mets. However, there is one guy that I want to talk about.
Pete Alonso
If the Mets want to see success next season, this will need to come on the back of slugger Pete Alonso. His affinity to hit the long ball, is UNREAL. This guy has enough power to light up the entire city of New York and he has. His ISO from last season came in at .323 which is crazy good, we are talking unsustainable good. You couple that with an elite wRC+ of 143 and you have the makings of a future slugger. Coming into this season Pete will be only 25 years old, which means that his best seasons may be ahead of him. I think he could be very scary if he reduces the amount of times he swings outside of the zone. You can see this in other hitters as they are in the league for a longer stretch of time. Pete had a swinging strike rate of 12.4% as well. All of this means, that his plate discipline may be a little lacking but, he makes up for it with raw power. I could see him struggle more this next season depending on how pitchers attack him. Especially since this past season, we saw pitchers throw him roughly 50% fastballs. He also yielded a negative value against curveballs this past year. I do foresee some pitchers changing their approach and that could take away some homers. In the field, Pete is not what you would call “good”. He struggled with a DRS of -6, but that is what you expect out of a guy at first base. You would like to see him field it better, but you’ll trade homers for fielding any day at that position. I know that you want to see that power first hand, check out all 53 of Pete’s Dingerballs from last year.
Pitching Staff:
The Mets have a arguably one of the better pitching staffs inside the MLB. They have the back-to-back Cy Young award winner at the helm, they have a Marvel superhero, Steven Matz, and Marcus Stro-Show. While they may have lost Zack Wheeler to the Phillies. They spread out their risk to two different pitchers, Michael Wacha and Rick Porcello. Both of those men have had excellent moments in their careers, Porcello more than Wacha but still the truth remains, The Mets have a pitching staff that will compete with anyone else. They just need to have their offense score runs for them, especially Degrom. I don’t think that I need to mention how talented he really is, but he has that it factor (two Cy Young awards back me up on my claim).
| Rk | Pos | Name | Age | W | L | W-L% | ERA | G | GS | GF | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | BK | WP | BF | ERA+ | FIP | WHIP | H9 | HR9 | BB9 | SO9 | SO/W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SP | Jacob deGrom | 31 | 11 | 8 | .579 | 2.43 | 32 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 204.0 | 154 | 59 | 55 | 19 | 44 | 1 | 255 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 804 | 167 | 2.67 | 0.971 | 6.8 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 11.3 | 5.80 |
| 2 | SP | Noah Syndergaard | 26 | 10 | 8 | .556 | 4.28 | 32 | 32 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 197.2 | 194 | 101 | 94 | 24 | 50 | 2 | 202 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 825 | 95 | 3.60 | 1.234 | 8.8 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 9.2 | 4.04 |
| 3 | SP | Zack Wheeler | 29 | 11 | 8 | .579 | 3.96 | 31 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 195.1 | 196 | 93 | 86 | 22 | 50 | 4 | 195 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 828 | 102 | 3.48 | 1.259 | 9.0 | 1.0 | 2.3 | 9.0 | 3.90 |
| 4 | SP | Steven Matz* | 28 | 11 | 10 | .524 | 4.21 | 32 | 30 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 160.1 | 163 | 83 | 75 | 27 | 52 | 7 | 153 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 691 | 96 | 4.60 | 1.341 | 9.1 | 1.5 | 2.9 | 8.6 | 2.94 |
| 5 | SP | Jason Vargas* | 36 | 6 | 5 | .545 | 4.01 | 19 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 94.1 | 81 | 45 | 42 | 14 | 39 | 2 | 81 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 400 | 101 | 4.70 | 1.272 | 7.7 | 1.3 | 3.7 | 7.7 | 2.08 |
| 6 | SP | Marcus Stroman | 28 | 4 | 2 | .667 | 3.77 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 59.2 | 65 | 27 | 25 | 8 | 23 | 1 | 60 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 261 | 108 | 4.15 | 1.475 | 9.8 | 1.2 | 3.5 | 9.1 | 2.61 |
Future Hope:
The Mets don’t have very many super high profile prospects but what they do have is some decent talent. The easy number one is the 18 year old Ronny Mauricio who is a shortstop in single-A for the Mets currently. He projects to be an above average player for the Mets and will come up around 2022. Andres Gimenez is in front of Ronny right now, and could be seen in the MLB in 2020. The one scary thing that could hamper him is his lack of ability to get walked and his spike in strikeouts in AA. David Peterson may be the one guy that I could see come up and actually make a difference. He seems to project to become a groundball pitcher, which in all respects is generally what you want a pitcher to be. He is pretty sturdy with his walks and other peripherals. However, I will post a video of him below the chart. If I had to pick one of these guys that will play for multiple seasons, I would bet on David.
| 1 | Ronny Mauricio | SS | 2022 |
| 2 | Andres Gimenez | SS | 2020 |
| 3 | Matthew Allan | RHP | 2023 |
| 4 | Brett Baty | 3B | 2023 |
| 5 | Francisco Alvarez | C | 2023 |
| 6 | David Peterson | LHP | 2020 |
| 7 | Mark Vientos | 3B | 2022 |
| 8 | Thomas Szapucki | LHP | 2021 |
| 9 | Josh Wolf | RHP | 2024 |
| 10 | Kevin Smith | LHP | 2020 |
Bold Predictions:
#1: The Mets finish in 3rd place again falling behind the Braves and Nationals
#2: Pete Alonso has a sophomore slump
#3: Jacob Degrom does not get Cy Young this year
