It’s been a great year for the Mets but there’s still work to be done

It’s the first week in September and the Mets are in first place in the NL East and they are tied for the second-best record in MLB, despite having to play without their top two pitchers for long stretches of time. It’s been an unbelievably fun season, one marked with winning the great majority of series that they’ve played. Thru five-plus months of the season, the longest losing streak has been three games. It’s really remarkable.

Buck Showalter has proven to a new generation that – beyond a shadow of a doubt – it absolutely makes a difference who’s making the decisions in the dugout. There’s not a Mets fan in existence who believes the team would have the same record if Luis Rojas was still managing. Sure, they’d still be good. But not 85-49 good.

Ownership and the front office have stepped up and had a fine year, too. Not only did they bring in Showalter, they spent big bringing in four free agents who have had a positive impact both during games and in the clubhouse. Oh, and while not as heralded as the other free agents, they also brought in Adam Ottavino late in the offseason and he’s turned in an impact season out of the pen.

And whether due to good decisions or good luck – none of the players they let leave in free agency has turned in a great year. Just about no one with any sense is wishing they had Javier Baez or Michael Conforto or Aaron Loup or Marcus Stroman or Noah Syndergaard on the team here in the final month of the season.

Additionally, the Mets seemed to do a fine job with the amateur draft. Kevin Parada, their top pick, easily jumps into a spot in their top five prospects. Jett Williams, their second pick, is challenging for a spot in their top 10 list. Their next two picks – Blade Tidwell and Nick Morabito – will vie for slots in the top 20. It’s hard to imagine a better outcome initially from a draft class.

Everyone knows that the Mets have a top-heavy farm system. This draft will help greatly in giving it some depth, too. The owner has made it clear that he wants to have a productive farm system, one that regularly cranks out players for the major league team. Of course, that’s easier said than done and it won’t be accomplished overnight.

Because of that top-heavy nature, the Mets were cautious this year at the trade deadline. They refused to part with a top prospect to bring in a rental. While not what I would have done, it was certainly a very reasonable approach, one that couldn’t have been easy to adhere to, especially while competitors were improving their squads with guys that certainly would have helped the Mets.

But it’s not like the Mets stood pat. They created a new DH, bringing in a lefty and a righty to replace the previous left/right options who had underperformed. They also made an improvement to the bench, bringing in a guy with an OPS+ in the 90s to replace the guy who had an OPS+ in the 30s. Finally, while not the reliever they wanted, they got a guy with a 2.66 ERA this season and one who had a 131 ERA+ in seven years in the majors prior to 2022.

Given the self-imposed restrictions they were operating with, it was an impressive haul, one that deserved praise.

Unfortunately, things that look good on paper don’t always play out that way in real life. After a great start, the three hitters they imported have all hit the skids. Daniel Vogelbach is batting .140 with a .664 OPS in his last 54 PA. Darin Ruf has been even worse, with a .180 OPS in his last 29 PA. And Tyler Naquin is in the same bad neighborhood, with a .192 OPS. Even worse, he’s struck out 17 times in his last 32 PA, for a horrific 53.1 K%.

The Mets are operating with a sinkhole at catcher and offensive production not much better at third base. So, who do they add to the roster to try to combat these issues? They tried top prospect Brett Baty, who looked good in the batter’s box and hit a couple of homers but overall was not much of a help before he came down with an injury.

The next two moves were to bring in a pinch runner and a backup shortstop. While those two players addressed issues on the roster, no one thinks they bring anything to the table with a bat in their hand. And the Mets kind of need that ability right about now, as they’ve scored three runs or fewer in 14 of their last 22 games.

Instead of a PR and a backup SS, my preference would have been a third catcher and a RHB. The third catcher would have allowed Showalter to pinch hit earlier in the game at the spot. And the RHB would give Showalter someone besides Ruf to use. And when you’re main RHB sits with a .180 OPS – you need to have another option.

One of my criticisms of Sandy Alderson was that while his Plan A was usually one that made sense, he had virtually no ability to change on the fly if for whatever reason it didn’t work in reality. There was no Plan B.

Right now – in late August and early September – we see that Billy Eppler’s carefully constructed Plan A from the trade deadline isn’t really working. The three main hitters are scuffling, the reliever has a 7.07 ERA and a 1.571 WHIP, the pinch-runner has gotten into one game, which is one game more than the backup SS since his recall.

My belief is that Vogelbach and Mychal Givens will be fine. My hope is that Naquin and Ruf will be, too. But the Mets still need offensive help and have limited avenues to get that. But limited does not equal none. Sure, maybe Mark Vientos should be trusted less than J.D. Davis with a glove on his hand. But maybe he can be trusted more than James McCann or Tomas Nido in the batter’s box.

It’s time to find out.