Below are my grades for the 2021 Mets. Grading is a subjective process at best. My goal is to incorporate actual production, along with preseason expectations, as well as the individual’s role on the club. This means not all grades that are the same are equal.
Pete Alonso – Perhaps the most consistent player on the 2021 Mets, Alonso hit pretty much like ZiPS forecasted for him. It’s just when you deliver 85 XBH as a rookie that 67 seems a bit disappointing.
Grade: B+
Javier Baez – The Mets got him to be a difference maker in the order and he put up a 141 OPS+, which was the best mark on the team this season among anyone with more than a handful of PA. He made the case to re-sign hm about as well as he possibly could with his bat. Will there be any lingering bad feelings about the “thumbs down” mess?
Grade: A-
Carlos Carrasco – Maybe my expectations were out of whack but it’s hard to imagine how this season could have been any worse. Out nearly two-thirds of the year and a 6.05 ERA when he did pitch. It’s too soon to declare him done but 10 more starts like this will probably be enough.
Grade: F
Miguel Castro – A first-half surprise, Castro pitched even better in the second half as he got his gopher ball tendency under control. He still walks too many guys but it wasn’t a feeling of impending doom when he came into the game like others from the pen.
Grade: B
Michael Conforto – While the rest of the team seemed to pack it in the last two months of the year, Conforto put up a .275/.372/.461 line in his final 207 PA. This may have been below what you expected but my preseason forecast was for .275/.365/.460 – which is almost eerily accurate. But he was terrible and injured the other four months of the season.
Grade: D+
Jacob deGrom – Was fantastic when he was healthy. It’s just that he missed so much time. It’s impossible to give him a grade so he’ll get two.
Grade: A+ for performance. Grade: D for health
Edwin Diaz – He had a 12-game stretch in the middle of the year where he was brutal. But in his last 19 games, Diaz had a 1.89 ERA, a 0.864 WHIP and he limited opposing batters to a .452 OPS. In a way, he’s like Alonso where maybe our expectations are too high.
Grade: B
Jeurys Familia – While Diaz finished on an up note, Familia did the opposite. In his final 16 games, he had a 5.68 ERA, a 1.263 WHIP and an .830 OPS allowed. And it’s not like he was great before that, either. It feels like he’s still got good enough stuff to be an MLB reliever. But he absolutely should get two or more days off between appearances and his manager should bend over backwards to avoid high-leverage situations – things that the 2021 Mets didn’t do with him.
Grade: D+
Rich Hill – He was brought in to give the Mets a reliable guy to go 4-6 innings each time out, rather than having to use a bullpen game. Hill gave the Mets exactly what they expected. If he’s willing to come back for the same contract he signed for 2021 – and is willing to pitch some in relief – the Mets should absolutely bring him back.
Grade: B
Francisco Lindor – The storyline will be how Lindor struggled in his first year in New York, much like Carlos Beltran and others before him. But the reality is that Lindor was incredibly lousy his first seven weeks with the Mets and then was prime Lindor after that brutal stretch. Lifetime, he has an .821 OPS. In his final 337 PA in 2021, Lindor posted an .833 OPS, with 17 HR in what essentially was half a season.
Grade: C+
Aaron Loup – It was a fantastic year. The only issue was that he wasn’t used properly. He had the same number of appearances as Familia but faced 44 fewer batters. A lot of that was because Loup, you know, got outs. But part was because he was brought in to end an inning when he should have been used for a full inning or more depending on pitch count.
Grade: A+
Trevor May – He was fairly similar, but worse, than Castro. And we certainly had higher expectations than that for May. And even when he did succeed, it seemed to be a giant struggle.
Grade: C+
James McCann – It may be that McCann can only be counted on for 100 or so starts a year. The Mets gambled that he wouldn’t lose that much offensive production with the increase in playing time. And that gamble backfired in 2021. Yes, he was a defensive upgrade from what the Mets received previously from their backstops. But they weren’t paying 4/$40.6 for the second coming of Jeff Mathis.
Grade: D
Jeff McNeil – He went from a cornerstone offensive player to a questionable starter. Perhaps the best reason to re-sign Baez would be so that neither Robinson Cano nor McNeil will be considered a full-time starter at the beginning of 2022.
Grade: D
Tylor Megill – For a guy who wasn’t considered a top prospect, one who had virtually no experience above A ball prior to this season, Megill did a great job when pressed into action. But he was really good against the Braves (2.75 ERA in 19.2 IP) and rotten against just about everyone else.
Grade: C
Tomas Nido – It wasn’t a good year for Nido, who had trouble staying healthy and had trouble hitting when he was active. The good news for Nido was that Patrick Mazeika showed even less when he got a chance to play.
Grade: D
Brandon Nimmo – Injuries again ruined Nimmo’s year, the second time in three seasons where he’s missed significant time. He was out two months with a finger injury and also missed time with an injured hamstring. His power numbers were down when he returned from his first injury. But we caught a glimpse of the player he can be when healthy in his final 20 games, when he had 10 XBH in 86 PA.
Grade: B
David Peterson – Made a splash in his MLB debut last year but he greatly outperformed his peripherals. My expectations were lower than many people for Peterson. And he didn’t reach them while being wildly inconsistent with his performances before suffering a season-ending injury.
Grade D
Kevin Pillar – Did better in the second half of the season, with a .760 OPS in his final 144 PA of the year. He’s a good fourth outfielder and my hope is he comes back in 2022.
Grade C+
Dominic Smith – He played too much early in the year and then not enough at the end of the season. His offense was a major disappointment and he needs a significant commitment to laying off high pitches. It still feels like he can be an MLB contributor. But it also seems like he might do it on a team besides the Mets. His defense saves him from the minus on this grade.
Grade: D
Drew Smith – Was good when he was healthy but he missed significant time once again. Also, while he had a shiny 2.40 ERA, it came with a 4.69 FIP. He’s not an eighth-inning reliever but is a fine sixth or seventh man in the pen.
Grade: C
Marcus Stroman – If before the season started, you were told that Stroman would lead the team in innings pitched and have a 3.02 ERA, you’d probably have been thrilled. He finished 16th in the NL in IP and 8th in ERA. Re-signing him should be the offseason’s top priority.
Grade: A
Jonathan Villar – He finished the year with a 102 OPS+, a nice bounceback from his awful 2020 season and right in line with his 2015-2019 output. He’s a league-average hitter. Nothing more, nothing less. Despite some high-profile gaffes, his baserunning is still a plus. But he’s not a good defender, no matter what the broadcasters might tell you. In a little over half a season at 3B, Villar had a (-4) DRS and a (-4.8) UZR.
Grade: C+
Taijuan Walker – Was great in the first half and lousy in the second half, at least until his final start of the season. Perhaps the biggest thing is that he made 29 starts, tying a career-high established in 2015.
Grade: B-
Luis Rojas – He got fired, which should pretty much tell you all that you need to know. The Mets have offered him a chance to remain with the organization, so it will be interesting to see what he does. He’s very young and will definitely get a chance to manage in MLB again. Hopefully he reflects on what he did wrong and can be one of those guys who becomes much better in his next stop.
Grade: D
Zack Scott/Sandy Alderson – Everyone is down on this duo and it’s hard to be up in arms about that reaction, with the non-player issues these two have hanging around their necks. But both were pressed into bigger roles than they were supposed to have. Scott was supposed to be in an assistant, behind-the-scenes role while Alderson was supposed to be more involved with the business side of things.
Yet that duo gave the QO to Stroman, made the big trade for Lindor and brought in Walker, Loup, Baez and Hill, along with Pillar and Villar. That’s a big chuck of the good grades on the 2021 Mets. McCann was the big miss but if J.T. Realmuto didn’t want to play in Queens, what were they supposed to do?
Neither Alderson nor Scott will be in the same position next year that they were in 2021, with Scott possibly not even in the organization. But the failure of the 2021 Mets had less to do with the performance of this duo than many people believe. Like with deGrom, it seems there should be two grades here:
Grade B for Player Acquisition. Grade F for non-player hires
Agree on almost all your grades, Brian. I would also bring back everyone you named.
Familia did show some flashes of brilliance, but in his last three years with the Mets his lowest FIP was this year’s 4.40. Yuk! And for $10 million/year.
I also think too many are being too tough on Alderson and Scott and their moves. You named some good ones they made. Picking up Hill and Williams at the deadline were decent moves, along with getting Baez. But giving up Crow-Armstrong was a bit much. And do we give them a minus for drafting Rocker? But, at least, they didn’t give Conforto a Springer-type contract before the year began.
What about Luis Guillorme? No grade for him? I’d give him a C+ overall—for his versatile defense, but he showed little power.
Very good job, Brian, on an activity that is much harder than it appears. As a college teacher for 25 years, I can say that assigning grades was always problematic, but you have done an amazingly astute job. I have two quibbles:
B/B+ for Pillar, who at times was the most reliable guy to get a quality AB in pressure situations, with solid defense. Can’t ask for more from him.
Tylor Megill was better than a C. Mets won his first five starts, I believe, and he was amazingly consistent for a AA pitcher thrust to the ML.
He also gets a B/B+. I think the guy is a future solid starter.
And yes, Guillorme was a B-, with an astonishing lack of power and no real opportunity after mid-season. Definitely worth a roster spot, because I like contact hitting and good defense over power and its resulting strikeouts…
Maybe this deserves a bigger discussion but i found the lack of faith in Castro by Rojas to be interesting, especially when you compare it to Familia.
At the end of the first half Castro had pitched 37 IP with a 3.65 ERA with an average Leverage index of 1.24 and Familia had pitched 27 IP with a 3.62 ERA with an average index of 1.22. About the same type of usage and performance but Castro was the preferred guy by Rojas
But then in the second half Rojas completely lost faith in Castro and in the second half his leverage index was just 0.65 , essentially a mop up guy 75% of the time while Familia was still counted on to be a late inning guy with a 1.27 leverage index.
Around the ASB is when Castro kind of faltered but it’s kind of odd how Rojas kept him in the doghouse the entire 2nd half and didn’t give him another chance at all, especially while Familia was struggling but continued to get chances after he had already failed.
People always say it’s not the managers fault blah blah blah but if you want a specific example of a Rojas failure, the Castro/Familia 2nd half handling is clearly one in my book. And maybe if Castro had gotten more chances late and Familia relegated to the mop up role, the bad results of Familia could have happened to Castro as well, but the fact that he didn’t even try and just kept calling Familia down the stretch is a clear sign of someone who doesn’t understand a bullpen.
So so true, Metsense. So glad you found these hidden gems hiding in the weeds. There are so many of these indications as to why Rojas was over his head, inexperienced with real-time managing, and lost games way more often than was necessary. If there are 100 subtleties to managing a ball club, Rojas might have been below average on 75 of them, so his team underperforms. He loses to a manager, especially over 162 games, that is above average on 75 of the subtleties… hard to quantify, but I hope you get my gist.
Brian didn’t offer grades for MLBaseball, but I would give a poor grade to Scheduling. I’m fed up with:
The 19 games intra-division is way too much. I’d like a little more variety, and I’d like to see more than 6 games against all those other clubs. If they go to 12 games intra-division, that’s 48 games, about a third of the season… seems like enough.
That would allow 114 games outside the division. At 10 games per team against the other 10 teams (100), that’s 148.
Any ideas as to how to reconcile the remaining 14 games? Personally, I’d toss the inter-league games… but I’m curious what the rest of you think.
Professor J, fine work indeed. I concur with virtually everything, although I am with Wobbit regarding Megill, As you say, for a guy not on the top 10 prospects list with almost no experience above A ball to step in and give 90 innings, go far beyond his total season max, and have a FIP similar to Walker, I bump him to B-.
Name, excellent point regarding Castro/Familia. Neither instilled confidence, and I think Rojas got hooked on that week or so where Familia rediscovered his bowling baller sinker circa 2015, but that was fleeting.
Good work Brian. Go to the head of the class.
A+ in Extra Credit for Name with the Castro/Familia comparison.
From your keyboard to god’s ears. Right on.
(Minor change for me: I give deGrom an “I” for incomplete)
A couple of thoughts:
– As usual, I’m “that guy” that will point out that BVW gave the QO to Stroman. Plus the Mets needed OF help, the FO got a middle infielder and gave up a top prospect which Alderson said in December they’d avoid. Look what Schwarber has done in Boston. I cannot give them more than a D.
– Early on, Nido and Peraza were spectacular for The Bench Mob considering their roles. Their clutch hitting as fill-ins kept the tram afloat. B to both.
– I’d like to talk about Seth Lugo who was not the same once the grip crack down happened. Let’s look at recent history:
2020 as a reliever:
10.1 INN, 8 H, 2.61 ERA, 2.90 FIP, 2 BB, 11 K’s, 1 HR
.211/.250/.342/.592. .269 BABIP
2021 pre grip crackdown:
8.1 INN, 7 H, 2 BB, 13 K’s, 1.08 ERA, 0 77 FIP, 0 HR
.233/.281/.267/.548 .412 BABIP!!!! Wow!!
After the crackdown was announced on June 21st:
38 INN, 34 H, 17 BB, 42 K’s, 6 HR, 4.03 ERA, 4.43 FIP
.238/.319/.427/.746 .289 BABIP
It appears that Lugo suffered from location in that his walks were much higher and the homeruns were up due to the inability to use the better grip substance.
Have to give Seth a C-.
Maybe he was affected by the grip substance because most of the bad stretch came 1 month after the crackdown highlighted by the Pirates game meltdown.
June 21-July 17 : 9.1 IP, 8.68 ERA, 7 walks
But after July 17 he rebounded with a 2.51 ERA in 28.2 IP so maybe he figured it out after the adjustment period.
Just finished comparing your evaluation of the 2021 Mets, with what Yahoo Sports had posted. It comes as no surprise that many of the grades were similar although Yahoo gave a slight upgrades to Alonso, Nimmo, Villar, May. They also gave stronger upgrades for Familia and Carrasco; which made no sense to me.
In reverse, you gave slight upgrades to Lindor, Conforto, Pillar, Castro, Walker, and Diaz. No major discrepancies noted except your D for Peterson and Yahoos INC; Carrasco getting an F from you (I agree), and Yahoo giving him a D (!).
The slew of Ds that made up hitters D.Smith, McNeil, Conforto, and McCann really told the story of our offensive ineptitude; didn’t it? Of that bunch, I believe Conforto is gone from next years club. Might as well keep the rest and hope for bounce back years. Certainly there values are pretty low right now.
Overall it seems, the bullpen did a fair/good job in 2021 considering how (I think) they were misused. I think Lugo, Gsellman, and Familia (along with Betance) won’t be back.
So glad to say goodbye to Familia. I don’t care how much “late beak” he has on his sincerer how “heavy” his stuff is. I need a reliever who can throw a strike when the hitter has a three-ball count. C’mon, admit it, when Familia goes to 3-2, you know he’s gonna walk the guy, right? Note the temps in the payoffs have relievers who throw competitive pitches. Yankees lost because their relievers walked a few guys…
I think Lugo will be back because he has the potential to regain his pre TJ form… one more season of under 4.00 won’t kill us if there is a chance for him being a shut down guy again.
Trevor May? I wold not miss him even a little bit.
Castro… with improved command, can become a stud… even a closer. Keep.
Gsellman? Follow Familia right out the door. I can’t stand watching him pitch any more… I had such high hopes for him, what, four years ago?!!
Nice job on the grades and entertaining as usual. I’d give MLB an D for starting a runner at second base, 7 inning doubleheader’s and even intentional walks that have likely shaved maybe 3 minutes off the time of a game. I know what they are trying to do and while I like innovation they need to just stop it and leave the game alone. No one complains about a three plus hour NFL game! That they teased the NL with the DH in 2020 but pulled it back in 2021 lands them an F on the front.
Football head summarized the season with the description “the story of our offensive ineptitude.” Well said.