The New York Mets have started the 2023 season nowhere close to where they thought they'd be but these three players deserve a ton of blame for that.
When the New York Mets saw that May began with series against the Tigers, Rockies and Reds, they had to be licking their chops. After all, with two straight offseasons of big spending from the wallet of Steve Cohen, this was supposed to a World Series contender and those opponents were fresh meat for such a team.
Instead, with a 7-6 loss to the Reds on Tuesday night, the Mets have now been swept by the Tigers, lost two out of three to the Rockies, and have now gone 0-1 against Cincinnati. That drops them to a dismal 17-19 on the season and puts New York a full eight games behind the Braves in the NL East.
Whatever the opposite of a storybook start to the season is, that's where we're at with the Mets. They have been nothing close to the contender we expected to see. There's plenty of blame to go around for that but, if we have to single some players out, these three are a great place to begin.
New York Mets: 3 players most to blame for awful start
3. David Peterson has been a surefire Mets loss in his starts
Speaking of the May 9 loss to the Reds, it was David Peterson on the bump for the Mets after he was recalled from Triple-A on Tuesday due to Max Scherzer being scratched from his start due to neck spasms. And it became quite clear why Peterson had been sent down to the minors in the first place.
Making his seventh start of the year for New York, Peterson lasted just 3.1 innings as he gave up seven hits and two walks while allowing four earned runs. He also hit 87 pitches on the night, even with such limited work in terms of innings pitched.
Peterson took the loss and is now 1-5 on the year. Meanwhile, the team is 1-6 in his starts this season, his pitching being a big reason for that. His ERA now sits at an unseamly 7.68 with a 1.68 WHIP.
There wasn't anyone expecting Peterson to be the ace of the Mets pitching staff this season, but the hope for giving him a spot in the rotation was that he could deliver something similar to what he did a season ago when he had a solid 3.83 ERA and 1.33 WHIP, something every team in baseball would take at the back end of the rotation. Instead, he's been a major problem and on the hill for nearly one-third of the team's losses to start the season.
2. Starling Marte has been a shell of himself in the Mets lineup
Though he might not carry the same caché with his name that some of his Mets teammates do, Starling Marte figured to be one of the key cogs of the lineup this season, especially after a year ago when he was a machine for this club, slashing .292/.347/.468 while registering 45 extra-base hits and 76 runs on the season in only 118 games.
Instead of the Mets getting a full season of that version of Marte, they are getting arguably the worst version of the veteran outfielder that we've ever seen in his career.
For the 2023 season over 31 games, Marte is slashing a measly .223/.298/.286 for the year (that slugging percentage is truly brutal) with only four extra-base hits (one home run) and only eight RBI and 11 runs scored.
Marte has registered at least a 1.0 WAR or higher for every season that he's been in the majors, which is since 2012. After this start to the year in New York, though, he's at -0.3 WAR for the season. That's highly indicative how little impact he's had in this lineup this season.
With the Mets trying to find consistent bats outside of Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and, with more pop and less average, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, Marte playing at this low of a level just isn't going to cut it.
1. Max Scherzer has been anything but the Mets ace…and now he's injured
As mentioned, Max Scherzer missed his start on Tuesday against the Reds because of neck spasms that have been bothering him, which made way for Peterson to deliver another uninspiring performance on the mound.
To be quite clear, we are not going to blame Max Scherzer for getting injured — that's just an unfortunate break of the game, especially for a 38-year-old.
What Scherzer can be blamed for, however, is how poorly he's pitched by his standards when he has been out there for the Mets. If the season ended today, Scherzer's ERA (5.56) would be the highest of his career by 1.13 and his WHIP (1.41) would also be the worst in his career. Despite making five starts, he's also only amassed 22.2 innings pitched, putting him at under 5.0 innings per start.
Putting it plainly, it's been a disaster for Scherzer, especially given the situation. With Justin Verlander out of the rotation to begin the year, the Mets needed their ace to step up and be a dominant tone-setter for the rotation. Instead, they've gotten the worst version of Mad Max that we've seen — and that's before we even take into consideration his 10-game suspension.
The hope would be that this current injury will allow him to rest and get treatment that will aid Scherzer in getting right. But what we've seen from him to this point is not anything in the same stratosphere as the pitcher we saw last year for the Mets.