The 2013 Mets weren’t supposed to be contenders. In fact, they entered the season with some serious question marks at many positions. Remember all of the talk about them having one of the worst outfields ever? That proclamation was just a bit overblown, of course, but it spoke to the uncertainty surrounding a team that was supposedly working towards contention in 2014 or 2015.

With just a handful of games left in yet another losing year, we can start to sort through the wreckage that was the Mets’ 2013 season. There are certainly things to be excited about moving forward (their young pitching, for one), but this season made the prospect of the Mets putting together enough offense to support their young pitching pretty murky. This off-season is obviously a very important one with regard to addressing this issue, but with so many weak spots in the lineup the question changes from “where do we need to upgrade?” to “where do we need to upgrade the most?”

The 2013 Mets were a bad team. The team is currently “competing” for one of 2014’s protected draft picks, so that’s not exactly earth-shattering news. What parts of the team were the worst, though? One way we can gauge this is by analyzing the team’s WAR on a position by position basis. In this case, we’ll take a look at the Mets’ fWAR per position as compared to the rest of the teams in the MLB.*

First, and for the sake of completeness, we’ll look at the team as a whole. Offensively, the Mets are in the bottom half of the league at 18th with 17.7 fWAR. Pretty bad, and even worse when you consider that a full 6 of that fWAR belongs to David Wright alone. They’re even lower on the list on the pitching side, coming in at 21st with 10.6 fWAR. Matt Harvey produced 6.1 of that 10.6 fWAR.
The table below breaks down the Mets’ total fWAR per position and separates starting pitching from relief pitching. The fWAR in this table represents offensive fWAR for all players and pitching fWAR for pitchers.

Position fWAR MLB Rank
C 1.5 21
1B 1.4 17
2B 2.6 10
3B 7.6 3
SS 0.0 24
LF 0.9 23
CF 2.2 21
RF 2.7 16
SP 10.6 17
RP 0.0 27

The numbers above, while ugly, are not particularly surprising. Wright was having a pretty special year before going down with an injury, and Daniel Murphy has quietly had a very solid year (2.9 fWAR). At this point it’s probably safe to say the Mets can comfortably move forward with Murphy at the keystone.

Travis d’Arnaud didn’t have a particularly good debut, but he’s had a rough go of it with an injury and a rehab that was quickly followed by a jump to the majors. He’s still the catcher of the future and there’s no reason to be down on him yet. The team could also produce some good value out of first base next season with the current collection of players depending on how they utilize them.

Beyond those players, and the expected improvement of the starting rotation, things are looking pretty bleak for the Mets going into the off-season. Omar Quintanilla has proven that he’s nothing more than a backup shortstop, and Ruben Tejada has amazingly played himself out of a position with zero depth. Shortstop remains a problem, but a problem that can be lived with if the outfield is sufficiently upgraded. Additionally, the bullpen has produced zero value this season. At least it isn’t in the negative, right?

The outfield is still a massive problem. The Mets could absolutely live with a combination of Juan Lagares and Matt den Dekker in center field if they can upgrade at the corners. Their right field fWAR is misleading because it includes Marlon Byrd’s 3.5 fWAR. Remove his production and the outfield corners have each produced less than 1 fWAR this year. That’s not going to play if this team wants to be a contender in the next couple of years.

The team’s performance seemed pretty bad just using the eye test, but it seems they were worse than most fans probably realize. There were points during the season where there seemed to be a good amount of inexplicable optimism about this team. It was playing well, and there should be excitement about the young pitching core, but there really was no reason to believe this team is equipped to win anytime soon. It’s been said many times before, but Sandy Alderson has a lot of work to do this off-season. So much so that it seems impossible for him to address all of the problems on this roster. His focus should be on making significant upgrades at the corner outfield spots. He’s going to need to get creative, and Mets fans can only hope it works out for the best.

*Note that all stats are for games through 9/21/2013.

8 comments on “The 2013 Mets were worse than you thought

  • Gonzo

    LGM…2015? Heh. The eye test. True enough. It’s been rough watching the current season. Curious to see the moves made by Sandy and front office and so forth going forward cuz I think we are all looking beyond the 2014 season and into the next

  • NormE

    Good article, Rob. I would differ with you in a couple of places. I think the focus has to be at SS (a more difficult skill position to fill) and then the OF. The other point is a sensitive one to some fans—it’s Murph. I believe his value will never be higher and he should be packaged to bring back a SS or OF. The only way I would want to keep Murph is if Alderson cleans out the detritus at 1B and moves him there—even though I’d like to see a bit more power there than Murph has to offer.

    • TexasGusCC

      Hi Norm. I think Murphy has it in him with a good off-season strength program. RF and SS are priorities, and I would like a masher at 1B (Guess who).

      • NormE

        Hey Gus,
        Carlos Delgado? Eddie Murray?
        Seriously, the more I think about it I go back to Keith Hernandez and John Olerud. Neither was a masher, but boy could they hit (and field). Murph at 1B, with a little more power, would satisfy me if the power would be supplied from other spots in the line-up. Davis is too erratic, Duda hasn’t shown that he can hit with men on base, Satin supplies little power.
        I respect your opinions, so whom do you have in mind?

  • Chris F

    This article is bad news, especially considering I thought they would be pretty bad!! Im afraid to say, without major changes, the next year or 2 wont be much different.

  • Misty213

    Sad to say, but I don’t see anything happening until 2016. This is the first season in a very long time where I watched just about every game. I didn’t expect much so I wasn’t disappointed. But they are MY team, Orange and blue, loyal to the last out.

  • Chris F

    I think now the worst part is that we will finish reverse order outside the protected pick all for naught. We can’t win, and we can’t even win at losing. Let’s not kid ourselves, a few extra Ws would not change the anemic attendance at Citi. I’m glad TC is steering the ship to the solid bottom of mediocrity, and complete lack of relevance. That’s worth 3 more years!

    I’m with you Misty, but wow, the full sadness is starting to set in.

  • Chris F

    Also, for anyone interested in tracking the reverse order standings with explanation, MLBTR has an excellent one here:

    http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/reversestandings2014

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