The New York Mets of 2018 enter the New Year with the goal of learning from old mistakes and leaving the weak 2017 season behind. With the help of data and new approaches, success is to return, but again there is not much room for manoeuvre.
The history of the New York Mets 2017 is told relatively quickly. They started the season as one of the better teams in the league – on paper. This impression was primarily based on her enormous pitching rotation, which – when fit – is unparalleled.
But everyone wasn’t fit – at least not for very long. And also as far as the position players were concerned, a sad game became apparent as far as the health of the key players was concerned. And so the Amazin’s ended the season in fourth place in the National League East, 27 games behind the Washington Nationals.
2018 the Mets see on paper like a decent team, which can cause a sensation due to their pitching rotation and a few impact bats – if everyone stays fit!
A week before the start of the season, the fitness point seems to be completely fulfilled for the team from Queens. The rotation makes a healthy and fit impression, although newcomer Jason Vargas will probably miss the start of the season with a hand injury. Since it is his right hand, however, he should be quickly ready for use again despite the operation.
For the moment, however, this means that the Mets could see a rare sight: a rotation in which Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler would all pitch one after the other.
Yet, apart from deGrom, the medical records of those mentioned above read long and painful. Harvey and Wheeler have already undergone Tommy John surgery and Harvey missed much of the pre-season with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Syndergaard tore the latissimus in his shoulder and with Steven Matz it was various injuries that led to surgery.
Now everyone seems to be fit, which creates a newly aroused competition, the outcome of which threatens to be distorted by the Vargas injury, at least at the start of the season. At least in the first turn of the rotation both Wheeler and Matz should get a start, afterwards one of them has to get into the bulls.
In 2018, the new manager Mickey Callaway will use it in a different way than before. Callaway wants to be more aggressive with his reliefs and more careful with the starters.
Dark Knight” Matt Harvey is the best example: in 2017 he allowed a .871 OPS on the first turn through the lineup, only .823 on the second pass, but on the third turn his opponents beat him 1,001.
His colleagues Matz, Vargas and Wheeler show similar tendencies. The conclusion drawn by the Mets was that these starters should usually only get two turns through the opponent’s lineup.
However, in order not to kill the bulls one by one, which could be the result of such a fierce valuation, Callaway is taking two measures: Firstly, Callaway wants to start the season with eight men in the pen – usually it is seven in the National League, as five bankers are preferred to bet on pinch-hitters accordingly frequently. The other step is one you have copied from the Houston Astros in the last playoffs: the use of a trained starter in the bull pen.
Point one can be achieved because Wilmer Flores is a position player in the team who can be used almost anywhere. After he was only on the road in the infield, they tried him out in the outfield. And he is willing to do it more or less regularly, even if he admitted: “It felt strange”, but: “I am always willing to do it.”
An attitude that suits Callaway: “It makes it easier to use your bullpen the way we plan when you have people with such flexibility”.
Point two is to be realized with the help of Robert Gsellman or Seth Lugo, later perhaps even by Wheeler or Mets. The idea is clear: One of these actual starters could be substituted for Harvey, who would go through the lineup twice and then perhaps make it into the fifth or sixth inning, and then go through the opposing lineup once himself. Then the Mets would be in seventh, maybe eighth, and could use their setup pitchers.
However: “If you want some guys in your pen to give you a certain length, you have to understand that they will be out for a few days after a long performance,” Callaway stressed, which leads him to the conclusion: “Having an extra pitcher would help if you want to use these people frequently”.
Although all theory is grey, the example of the Astros, who with starters had more than just tidied up their deficient bulls in the playoffs and the World Series, shows that the path can be quite right. The question is, however, whether this approach is practicable over the course of a long season. Astros will also have to answer this question in the coming months.
The question of how the offensive is going into the New Year must also be answered. Here, too, last year’s motto was “Last Man Standing” after numerous injuries and ultimately also trades, as New York rightly threw in the towel sometime in the middle of the year. Ultimately, only six players played more than 100 games. Shortstop Jose Reyes even reached 145, the best value in the team.
All but Curtis Granderson are back on the grid, although Michael Conforto will start the season on the DL due to his shoulder injury last year. New to the line-up are Todd Frazier, who last worked in the Bronx, and Adrian Gonzalez, who also played very little in 2017 due to injury.
Brandon Nimmo and Juan Lagares share Center Field at the beginning before Conforto returns. Otherwise, all positions seem to be assigned. This is also due to the fact that there is not necessarily a massive amount of pushing from the farm system, for example. With Andres Gimenez, the Mets have exactly one of the top 100 prospects, a shortstop that will probably not get a whiff of MLB air before the next decade. This explains why there is room in the Spring Training for a Tim Tebow, who is now anything but a prospect.
All in all, however, the lineup can be described as quite neat. Paired with a productive bullpen and a healthy rotation of the extra class, the Mets could play a role in the fight for the wildcard – the division might resemble again a procession of the Nationals.
All this, however, only on condition that the main players remain fit. Something they hadn’t done for a long time. Something that is becoming fundamental for a Mets team that doesn’t have a lot of room for improvement. As usual, a ride on the razor blade for the New York Mets will probably also be this season.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.