New York Mets: Mets’ path to improvement is incredibly daunting

The pen is bad

However, their path to getting better, and attaining a reachable distance to a playoff spot is incredibly daunting. Quite frankly, it is just sad. The Mets bullpen now ranks second to last in the NL in earned run average, that is a fact. It’s also a fact that good teams have good relief pitching.

The only positive is that Washington’s pen is worse, keeping the Mets from dead last by close to a run per nine innings. But think about it this way, relief pitching was the number one area they had to improve this offseason, they tried and failed.

I’m aware that much of what New York Mets management has to do is play with the cards they’re dealt. No GM candidate, who takes one of these jobs, is free to spend whatever they want. Instead of being able to spend the necessary of money to fix a problem, Brodie Van Wagenen was only allowed to spend some money, that’s how the Mets got Jeurys Familia.

Just getting Familia was not going to be enough, but with an internal budget to work with, it forced Van Wagenen’s hand, thus the Diaz trade. Yes, you know all this already, but it’s a rippling effect. Even taking Robinson Cano out of the equation, the deal still does not pay off for the New York Mets. Cano does not make that trade look horrible, it’s Edwin Diaz, who recently blew the same game twice, that makes it all look miscalculated.

Familia, who gave up three earned runs to start the current 11 game road trip, makes the Mets look bad. It was the same with Drew Gagnon’s four earned runs later in that game. The day before, it was Chris Flexen, who we have seen time and time again not emerge as a legit threat. Ditching Hector Santiago is not going to solve any problems either, even though that is what the Mets just did.