After a rainy Thursday, the New York Mets kicked off their season against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday afternoon, and it couldn’t have gone much worse. The Mets were one hit away from being shut out — a solo homer by Sterling Marte — and Jeff McNeil’s late slide into third with Raíces Hoskins was all they could muster. The Brewers took the game 3-1 (box score).
Before Friday’s game, Mets owner Steve Cohen spoke with local media and expressed concern, saying that while the club had a less-than-stellar offseason, they’d be disappointed if they were deprived of another postseason run. According to the Associated Press:
The Mets won 101 games and went to the postseason in 2022, though they fell short of the division title by 10.5 games and were eliminated in the Wild Card Series by the San Diego Padres. They followed that up with a 75-87 record in 2023, and things went so poorly that they were selling at the trade deadline. Marcus Stroman, David Peterson, Max Scherzer, and Justin Verlander were among the former soldiers.
To Cohen’s credit, he struck deals that could give the Mets better chances in return for significant dollars, aiming to bolster the team’s prospects. He secured the services of David Stearns, president of baseball operations, in the previous offseason with the belief that Stearns would build a sustainable contender. Cohen has repeatedly stated his desire for the Mets to become the East Coast version of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This is a year of change for the Mets. They want to compete, as Cohen said, but they’re also using the season as an opportunity to see what they have in young players like Brett Beatty. At the same time, they recently signed J.D. Martinez, who sent young slugger Mark Vientos back to Triple-A. Signing Martinez was their biggest move of the offseason.
The Mets entered the season with 38.7% difficulty, according to sportsline, which is 42.8% higher than the baseball prospects and 26.0% lower than the fine graph.
