New York Mets: Three thoughts on the Mets ahead of 2019

Helping the pitching is the key.

What I have said above is what the internet might call a “hot take” or what some potential commenters on this article will call “the worst thing they have ever read” however, it is true. While the Mets are and always will be a team build around their pitching staff, it will not be the pitching that wins them games.

While great pitching is rare, and a massively important asset to have, the Mets will not get over the hump based on their pitching alone. While that makes sense, I think we might slowly start to see the Mets’ identity become smart offense.

Having Jacob deGrom is an overall asset he is so special he can still win in spite of a bad offense. Noah Syndergaard, might be that good one day too. However, the Mets will probably lose a lot of games with Zack Wheeler, Steven Matz, and Jason Vargas starting because they just need a little bit more run support.

The exception is I do think we will see Wheeler going later into games this year because he is on a walk year and the Mets might not have anything to lose so there shouldn’t be restrictions, but he still needs to show he can bring it again. Matz and Vargas, getting out of their own heads is the key for them. Both can be solid if they learn how to not just get absolutely shellacked.

Anyway I digress, none of what the pitchers do matters if the offense cannot get going. If Robinson Cano is not the average-power hybrid hitter he has always been, the Mets could struggle. If Amed Rosario does not get a lot of hits and steal a lot of bases, the Mets could struggle. If Conforto does not hack his way out of trouble, the Mets could struggle.

While deGrom is best player on the team, and more important than any position players right now, I would argue the Mets’ identity is their quest to figure out how to tap the potential of their offense.

The health of the pitching staff is obviously important, but if that goes well, and deGrom was healthy all of last year, then yeah, the Mets will be great. However, the Mets need the bats to be marginally better than we have seen in order to go from being great to special.

A big reason why the Red Sox won the World Series, and they are the now the standard MLB team because of that, was they led the league in runs. They did have the third lowest team ERA in the American league, but it was that balance of doing both that won them the Commissioner’s trophy.

You don’t want the Mets do be like the Diamondbacks last year. Yeah, the Diamondbacks had a team ERA of 3.72, third best in the NL, but they finished ninth in the NL in runs scored and they weren’t close to the playoffs by the end of the year.

2019 will be different no matter how you look at it, but it is more or less the same as it’s always been. The Mets can pitch great all they want, heck, they can lead the NL in every pitching category. However in the end, they want to be equally as dangerous at the plate.

It is complementing a great rotation that makes a team special, not riding it until there is nothing left.

In order to win in 2019, the Mets’ identity must be finding their offense. The pitching is already in place, time to see what they more recently put into place pay its dividends.

Are you ready for some Metropolitans baseball?