Final grades for the 2024 Mets

Here are the final grades for the unexpectedly fun 2024 regular season – not including playoffs – for the Mets.  The 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.  In order to qualify for a grade, a player needed to amass at least 100 PA or pitch 50 innings.  This gives us 25 players to rate.

Pete Alonso – He hit 12 fewer homers, drove in 30 fewer runs and struck out 21 more times than he did a season ago.  It’s not that it was a bad year; it’s just nowhere near what we’ve come to expect.  Last season’s final grade was a B-, which means this one has to be worse.  Grade: C+

Francisco Alvarez – Expectations were thru the roof for Alvarez this season and missing two months of the year made it impossible for him to meet those.  But the team played its worst ball of the year while he was on the shelf and that can’t be ignored.  Grade: B-

Harrison Bader – There were 99 PA where he was tremendous.  And the rest of the year he was even worse than expected.  And my preseason expectations were pretty low.  Finally, his defense was nowhere near the elite level it was touted to be.  Grade: D+

Brett Baty – With 171 PA, Baty qualifies for this list.  He probably wishes that he didn’t.  Grade: D-

Jose Butto – My expectations were 100X higher for Butto than that of the club’s.  Clearly, he should have broke camp in the starting rotation and it’s fair to wonder how his season – and the Mets’ – would have been different if he did.  Yet all he did was answer the bell whenever the team gave him a shot, regardless of which role they gave him. Grade: B+

Edwin Diaz – The hope was that Diaz would do a reasonable facsimile of the pitcher he was in 2022.  Two years ago, he had a 1.31 ERA, 32 Saves, a 0.839 WHIP and a 6.56 /BB ratio.  This year those numbers were a 3.52 ERA, 20 Saves, a 1.043 WHIP and a 4.20 K/BB ratio.  Grade: C+

Reed Garrett – He had a sub-1.00 ERA thru his first 17 games of the season before hitting the bad streak that every reliever goes thru.  And then he got hurt.  Garrett was good once again upon his return, with a 1.84 ERA in his first 16 games after being activated from the IL.  And then there was his final appearance of the year where he allowed 4 ER in 0.2 IP.  He was more good than bad and few had expectations for him entering the season.  Grade: B

Adrian Houser – It seems like a lifetime ago when Houser pitched for the Mets.  He was worse than expected as a starter and better than expected as a reliever.  It should be said that his poor results as a starter came when Alvarez was sidelined.  He was really good in his first 11 relief appearances.  He was really bad in his last five. Grade: D

Jose Iglesias – There were no expectations for Iglesias coming into the season.   And then he delivered a 2.5 fWAR in 291 PA.  Sure, it was thanks to an unsustainable .382 BABIP.  But the grade is about what the player did, not how likely he’s to do that next year.  Grade: A+

Francisco Lindor – Expectations were pretty high and then he had a really poor start.  Yet when all was said and done, Lindor exceeded those expectations and put himself in the MVP race until September when he got hurt and his main competition excelled.  The only question is if he deserves the plus.  Grade: A

Sean Manaea – His first start of the year was six shutout innings, setting the tone for a great year.  Conventional Wisdom was that he took off after changing his arm slot but the truth is he was pretty good before that change, too.  He had a handful of bad starts – including at least three after the change – but the good far out-weighed the bad.  Grade: A

Starling Marte – He rebounded some from his dismal 2023 campaign yet Marte posted just a 0.6 fWAR in 370 PA.  Essentially, he produced near my low expectations.  Grade: C-

J.D. Martinez – More was expected – at least by me – from Martinez than Marte.  Yet their OPS+ numbers were almost identical.  And it’s not like Martinez adds to his case with defense or baserunning.  Grade: D+

Jeff McNeil – The first half was lousy and the second half was very good.  But the second half was cut short by an injury.  Grade: C-

Tylor Megill – With a 4.04 ERA, this was Megill’s best season in the majors so far.  And this best season included a demotion to the minors and a brief assignment to the bullpen.  At the end of the year, he was better than my expectation: Grade C+

Brandon Nimmo – A great first half was followed by a far inferior stretch after the All-Star break, one where his power disappeared.  It’s impossible to give him a better mark than Alonso. Grade: C

Adam Ottavino – He was supposed to be the team’s primary setup man.  But by the middle of the year, he had been busted to low-leverage mop-up guy.  He deserved the demotion.  Yet in his final 25 games, Ottavino had a 3.27 ERA and limited batters to a .678 OPS.  He should have been returned to a bigger role.  Grade: D+

David Peterson – Not much was expected from Peterson at the beginning of the year.  But once he was activated from the IL, he was neck-and-neck with Manaea for being the club’s best pitcher.  His seven shutout innings in Milwaukee on 9/29 probably saved the team’s season.  Grade: A+

Jose Quintana – He finished with 31 starts, 171 IP and a 105 ERA+.  Those are solid numbers but not good as my expectations for him coming into the year.  Grade: C-

Luis Severino – Stayed healthy and made 31 starts.  Some lunkhead broadcaster called him a star yet he had a 2.1 fWAR – essentially a league-average pitcher.  Severino was great against the Marlins and Nationals and below-average against everybody else.  But my expectations were pretty low.  Grade: B

DJ Stewart – My expectations were pretty low for Stewart and his .622 OPS was 30 points beneath my forecast.  And he got more playing time than he should have received.  Grade: D

Tyrone Taylor – A brutal May kept him from advancing from fourth outfielder to starter earlier than he did.  But by the end of the season, he was playing almost every day.  From June 1 to the end of the year, Taylor had a .763 OPS.  And his defense was solid.  Grade: B

Luis Torrens – The great start to his Mets career included having the team move on from both Omar Narvaez and Tomas Nido, for which every Mets fan should be grateful.  While his hitting fell off substantially, Torrens remained a plus due to his ability to control the running game.  He threw out 13 of the 28 runners who tried to steal.  Grade: B

Mark Vientos – The Mets botched the Baty/Vientos/Martinez situation completely.  Vientos had every right to be disgusted with how things played out.  Instead, he kept his head up and produced all year, first in Syracuse and then in New York.  On almost every grade, there’s some hemming and hawing – but not this one.  Grade: A+

Jesse Winker – The Mets acquired him after he put up a 126 OPS+ with the Nationals.  Winker was even better his first month-plus with New York.  But things ended on a sour note, as he posted a .071/.250/.143 line in 18 September games.  He played more for the Mets in the first stretch.  Grade: C-

*****

Carlos Mendoza – Few knew what to expect from Mendoza when the Mets turned to him as the replacement for Buck Showalter.   There were several missteps along the way yet Mendoza proved to be a steady hand at the wheel and he kept things together after a lousy start.  We can debate how much credit should go to the veteran hitters who called a players-only meeting that seemed to turn things around versus how much should go to Mendoza.  But it seems foolish not to give Mendoza at least some.  Grade: B+

David Stearns – This might be the toughest one to grade out of them all.  Stearns assembled a team that produced a 14-win improvement, which is tremendous.  But how much of that improvement was due to the disappointing results in 2023?  The blurred lines between managerial and front office decisions also makes this grade tougher.  But it seems clear that the Vientos demotion and the Julio Teheran fascination belong on Stearns’ plate.  Did he do enough at the trade deadline?  Different people can have different viewpoints on that.  But we should all be able to agree that he did no harm.  Grade: B+

*****

In a way, the grades for Mendoza and Stearns were handled with kid-gloves.  With a full – successful! – season under their belts, they’ll both be subject to tougher marks in 2025,