We’re officially halfway through the 2023 season and the New York Mets are an absolute mess. With a 36-45 record underscored by a 7-18 month in June (with a game left), this team, who won 101 games last season, are nine games down on the last wild card berth and unbelievable 17.5 games behind in the NL East.
The Mets only lost their 45th game on August 22nd of last season and here we are on June 29th with already 45 losses. Nothing is going right for this team. If they hit, don’t throw, if they hit, don’t hit. We’ve seen Steve Cohen speak to the media in hopes that he might ignite it, but nothing seems to be working.
There have been admirable performances from a few players in the Mets, but for the most part we’ve seen this team fall short of expectations. In the hope that things turn around, here are three players who fell short of the Mets’ high expectations in the first half of the season, and two others who did.
Last offseason it was Max Scherzer and this offseason it was Justin Verlander. The Mets signed Justin Verlander to a two-year, $86.6 million contract this offseason, the same AAV as Max Scherzer, to essentially replace Jacob deGrom.
I was totally there for that. As much as I loved deGrom and appreciated everything he did for this Mets organization, it felt like Verlander made more sense on a shorter-term contract than a man more reliable to stay on the field and help the Mets win now could.
Verlander, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, missed the entire first month of the season through injury and hasn’t looked up to the pitcher he was in Houston since his return.
In ten starts, Verlander has a 4.11 ERA in 57 innings pitched. Now, a 4.11 ERA isn’t so bad, but if that ERA is 2.5 runs higher than the season before, that’s a problem. Nobody expected another 1.75 ERA season from Verlander, but we expected a lot better.
Verlander only went past five innings five times and allowed four runs or more four times. His walks are up, his home runs are up, his strikeouts are down, the trend is down.
He threw five innings scoreless in his last game against Milwaukee, but when five innings scoreless against a pretty poor Brewers offense is one of his highlights, it’s not great.