The New York Mets held a firm lead on the rest of the NL East for two months. The keyword is held because they’re currently looking up at the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets were swept out of Philadelphia over the weekend. Entering Tuesday, they’re 56-55 and 2.5 games back of first. But how did this happen, you may ask. There are three main reasons to explain the Mets’ recent skid.
Jacob deGrom and Francisco Lindor‘s Injuries
deGrom once owned an ERA under one this season and was one of the reasons why New York was in first. However, he’s been out since July 7 with an elbow injury. Whenever deGrom was on the mound, the Mets knew what they were getting out of him. He would go seven innings and it would essentially be a day off for the bullpen. Now, Marcus Stroman has more pressure on him to be the best version of deGrom he can be.
Lindor wasn’t having his best year in Queens. He was hitting .228 with 11 homers on the year before his oblique injury. However, he was still a two-win player and is still one of the elite shortstops in the game. Now that Luis Rojas doesn’t have Lindor, he’s penciling Jeff McNeil in the two hole. McNeil has zero RBI and two runs scored in the last seven days.
No Starting Pitching Help
The Mets didn’t pick up any starting pitching at the deadline despite deGrom being sidelined for another month or so. Rich Hill was acquired during deadline week but he isn’t as talented as Jose Berrios or Kyle Gibson. The San Diego Padres were in a similar situation as the Mets. San Diego hasn’t gotten consistent production from Blake Snell, Ryan Weathers, and Chris Paddack in 2021. Additionally, Dinelson Lamet has been sidelined with an injury so many fans wanted A.J. Preller to get rotation help. Like the Mets, that didn’t happen.
The difference between the two teams is San Diego has Snell, a former Cy Young winner, who just needs to pitch to the level he knows he can pitch at. In case you were wondering, Snell pitched a 13 strikeout, seven-inning shutout Sunday. On the other hand, deGrom, New York’s X-factor, isn’t even pitching right now. Due to deGrom’s injury, Tylor Megill is in the rotation. Megill, who impressed initially, has allowed eight combined runs in his last two starts.
Lineup Underwhelming
You can’t explain the Mets’ struggles without mentioning the lineup. While Lindor’s absence doesn’t help things, the offense would still be struggling if he was in uniform. Over the last 14 days, the Mets offense is hitting .212 with a .627 OPS. It’s even worse over the last week, where they have one win. New York as a whole is batting .189 with a .605 OPS in the last seven games.
In the last seven games, J.D. Davis, Dominic Smith, Brandon Nimmo, and McNeil have hit zero homers. Javier Baez was their big deadline addition but he’s a hit-or-miss guy. Baez exited Sunday’s game with left hip tightness and is hitting .192 with eleven strikeouts in the last week. Pete Alonso and Michael Conforto haven’t hit their stride offensively either in Lindor’s absence.
It’s hard to win games when essentially the entire lineup is struggling. It doesn’t matter if the Mets don’t have deGrom when they’re not scoring enough runs. They scored just five runs against the Phillies this past weekend. Philadelphia scored five runs on Saturday alone.
Mets fans can’t really blame one area of the team to explain their struggles. It’s the lineup, rotation, and injuries. And their schedule doesn’t get any easier the rest of the way. They’re lucky the NL East isn’t the NL West or else their season would be over.
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