The New York Mets (24-14) welcome the Chicago Cubs (22-16) to Queens for a battle of two first place teams. The Mets begin a six game home stand, followed by six games in the northeast, followed up by nine more home games, so they are in a stretch where they can reasonably settle in after spending much of the last month ping ponging around the country.
With their win on Wednesday, the Mets are back in their series wining ways, after dropping or splitting the previous three series they played, though the team has more or less been competitive, even in their losses as of late. With the exception on Tuesday night’s loss to the Diamondbacks, the Mets had not lost a game by three or more runs since April 15th against the Twins. And despite being in first place and being ten games over .500, the Mets still feel like a team that hasn’t quite fully gelled yet.
Part of that is because the lineup has been hitting just enough to win games, but hasn’t been a well-oiled machine just yet. With his two home runs on Wednesday, it looks like Juan Soto may be closer to putting his season on the right track than he’s been at any other time this year. Since the start of the Nationals series on April 25th, Soto has put up a 195 wRC+, hitting .313/.424/.646 with a .333 isolated slugging, four home runs, and more walks than strikeouts.
But outside of Soto and the still red hot Pete Alonso, the Mets’ offense has been inconsistent at best. Francisco Lindor has continued to hit and hit well, he has cooled from his mid-April tear. Brandon Nimmo, Mark Vientos, and the recently returned pair of Francisco Alvarez and Jeff McNeil have all shown flashes of their past successes, but haven’t been able to put anything forth consistently. When Tyrone Taylor, Luis Angel Acuña, and Luis Torrens are taking some of the best at-bats in the lineup, you know that the rest of the team is struggling.
With Jesse Winker missing two months with an oblique strain, the Mets are currently rostering a few players that seem like placeholders in Jose Azocar and Brett Baty. Baty, who barely got any Triple-A reps due to a toe injury, is an enigma who seems to mash in spring training and in Syracuse but can’t put it together for the big league club just yet. Limiting his playing time to being a bench player seems like a resignation of his lack of future with the club. Ditto Azocar, who had a nice spring and is a useful piece, but right now isn’t hitting enough to justify a spot on the roster. Personally, I would rather see Jared Young get most of the left-handed designated hitter at bats left in Winker’s stead and see a young outfielder, perhaps Drew Gilbert, replace Azocar to get a sense of what he may have in the tank.
The Mets’ bullpen, long their strength this season, has begun to falter a bit, mostly due from overuse and lack of off-days. With no Thursday games in May and just one Monday game in June, the team will get some more rest, which is sorely needed. With A.J. Minter and Danny Young both out for the season, the Mets are currently rolling the dice on Génesis Cabrera as their lefty out of the ‘pen, though the recently inked Colin Poche or Syracuse’s Anthony Gose may be options for that spot in the coming days.
The Cubs started of the year as one of the hottest teams in baseball and, though they’ve cooled off a bit as of late, they are still in first place in the National League Central and have scored the most runs in all of baseball thus far. A lot of their success has come from former Mets farmhand Pete Crow-Armstrong, who the Mets dealt for half a season of Javier Báez in a year where the team didn’t even sniff a playoff spot. PCA is hitting .265/.303/.537 with nine home runs and 12 stolen bases, already good for 2.3 bWAR. Carson Kelly and Kyle Tucker are also having impressive seasons, and the Cubs are, as a team, slugging .457, third best in all of baseball and just eight points behind the Yankees for best in the game.
In worse news for the Cubs, from a metaphysical standpoint, it appears the new pope, Leo XIV, is a White Sox fan.
Friday, May 9: Clay Holmes vs Jameson Taillon, 7:10pm on SNY
Holmes (2024): 36.2 IP, 39 K, 13 BB, 0 HR, 2.95 ERA, 2.19 FIP, 74 ERA-
The starting experiment for Holmes has been reasonably successful thus far, with the right-hander goin deeper into games as of late and finding ways to adjust his repertoire to be more effective over multiple innings. His strikeouts peaked in an early April game against the Marlins, but while his Ks have diminished, so have his walks and his earned runs. In his last start against the Cardinals, he gave up three earned runs, but that number is slightly padded by a bad throw that led to a run. But overall, Holmes is looking more like a starter now, and can, hopefully, continue the success that has seen his ERA drop a run and a half since early April.
Taillon (2024): 39.2 IP, 31 K, 8 BB, 6 HR, 3.86 ERA, 4.10 FIP, 96 ERA-
After a very bad first start of the year, where he gave up six earned runs in four and a third innings, Taillon has been good. Never a strikeout pitcher, Taillon has been getting results by pitching to contact and trusting his defense to make outs behind him. So far, its working. He’s not doing anything different than what he’s done in the past – all of his rates are more or less at career rates – but the team he’s pitching for is scoring a lot of runs and he’s been keeping them in games.
Saturday, May 10: Tylor Megill vs TBD, 7:15pm on FOX
Megill (2024): 36.0 IP, 45 K, 15 BB, 2 HR, 2.50 ERA, 2.81 FIP, 63 ERA-
As our Chris McShane recently said, maybe Tylor Megill is for real this time. While his last two starts have been the weakest of the season thus far, neither were disasters and, overall, he’s doing all the things you’d hope Megill would be doing he’s striking folks out, he’s limiting his walks, and he’s inducing ground balls. Megill has always been more effective early in the season (remember his role in the Mets’ combined no-hitter in 2022?), but as Chris pointed out, he’s been quite good since the middle of last season.
Sunday, May 11: Griffin Canning vs Matthew Boyd, 12:05pm on Roku
Canning (2024): 36.0 IP, 37 K, 15 BB, 3 HR, 2.50 ERA, 3.37 FIP, 63 ERA-
Every year at Amazin’ Avenue, we do bold predictions to begin the year, and mine this year was that Griffin Canning was going to stick in the rotation for the entirety of the season. So far, it’s looking like I should have put some real money on that prediction. While he’s established that he’s essentially a five and done starter, he hasn’t given up more than one earned run in a start since April 11. Canning isn’t going to overpower anyone, and he can be a bit frustrating to watch at times, as he’s a nibbler, but the results are there.
Boyd (2024): 39.1 IP, 37 K, 13 BB, 4 HR, 2.75 ERA, 3.75 FIP, 69 ERA-
The journeyman starter Boyd is off to his first healthy season since 2020 and, so far, he’s looking as good as he ever has. While his ERA has been ticking up with each start, he’s yet to have a ‘bad’ start yet, with the closest being a start against the buzzsaw Dodgers where he got tagged for six runs (only three earned) over six innings. When healthy, Boyd has always been a perfectly cromulent MLB starter, and that is exactly what he looks like now.
Poll
How will the Mets fare in their three-game series with the Cubs?
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Dude Incredible – The Mets sweep!
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The People’s Microphone – the Mets win two of three.
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Scrappers – the Mets win one of three.
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House Full of Garbage – The Mets get swept
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Pizza (Tavern style, not deep dish)
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0 votes total