{"id":660066,"date":"2026-04-03T02:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/660066\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T02:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:56:23","slug":"david-lennon-new-mets-have-disappointed-in-seasons-opening-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/660066\/","title":{"rendered":"David Lennon: New Mets have disappointed in season’s opening week"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A big part of David Stearns\u2019 winter strategy<\/a> was creating a Mets roster that wouldn\u2019t carry the PTSD of last year\u2019s second-half disintegration into the 2026 season. <\/p>\n

On paper, it was a smart play. If nothing else, Stearns\u2019 makeover would allow this group to start fresh, free of those September scars. <\/p>\n

Then again, even the new faces are wearing Mets uniforms, and sometimes the burden of erasing the previous year\u2019s disappointment isn\u2019t as simple as switching up the clubhouse personnel. <\/p>\n

And it rarely happens overnight. <\/p>\n

On Opening Day, the Mets did a decent job of convincing us that they could do it by ambushing reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes with grinding at-bats that Stearns had imagined all winter. In the giddy postgame, even Bo Bichette<\/a> was celebrated for his 13-pitch strikeout. <\/p>\n

The Mets, for that one afternoon, could do no wrong. <\/p>\n

Since then? Not much has gone right from an offensive standpoint, with many of the new Mets doing a worse job than the handful jettisoned by Stearns during the offseason, to varying degrees. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

After that 11-run outburst at Citi Field, the production overall has plunged<\/a>, with the Mets scoring a grand total of 12 runs in the next five games leading up to Thursday\u2019s series opener against the Giants at Oracle Park. It\u2019s the fewest in the majors, and Stearns\u2019 recruits are among the principle culprits. <\/p>\n

Marcus Semien (0-for-15, seven strikeouts) is at the head of the class, but it\u2019s a group with low marks. Luis Robert Jr. (one homer) and Jorge Polanco<\/a> (two doubles) are the only newcomers with extra-base hits during the past five games. Combined with Bichette and Carson Benge, those frustrated five are batting .141 (12-for-85) with 20 strikeouts in this recent span. <\/p>\n

Obviously, we\u2019re dealing with tiny sample sizes here. But this is all we have to go on at the moment, and if not for the Mets\u2019 stellar pitching performances, they wouldn\u2019t be sitting at .500 (3-3) to this point. Against the Pirates and Cardinals, too. Not exactly MLB heavyweights. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just baseball,\u201d Carlos Mendoza said before Thursday\u2019s game. \u201cIt\u2019s been hard for us the past few days, I\u2019m not gonna lie. But I like the at-bats, the fact that we\u2019re creating traffic. That\u2019s the one thing with our offense \u2014 because we\u2019re deep and we got guys that are going to get on base, we\u2019re going to create a lot of opportunities. And more times than not, those guys will come through.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mendoza again went with a righty-heavy lineup Thursday against Giants lefthander Robbie Ray, starting Mark Vientos at first base and Tyrone Taylor in rightfield with Polanco at DH. That configuration generated five hits and one run in 11 innings (0-for-11 with RISP) during Wednesday\u2019s 2-1 loss to the Cardinals. <\/p>\n

During this dreadful five-game stretch, the Mets\u2019 offense ranked 27th in batting average (.189) and OPS (.563). They\u2019re also hitting .113 (6-for-53) with runners in scoring position, including .034 (1-for-29) for the series loss in St. Louis. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s difficult to do, especially with a $370 million roster that just added one of the sport\u2019s best clutch hitters in Bichette, who led the majors with a .381 average with runners in scoring position last season. Stearns recruited Bichette for that singular purpose, giving him a three-year, $126 million contract that allows him to opt out after the first $47 million season. <\/p>\n

To make that next big payday happen, Bichette will have to be the No. 3 hitter the Mets envisioned, so there\u2019s mutual benefit there. Also additional pressure on Bichette, who recently provided a candid assessment of the new-player mindset, with symptoms that we\u2019ve seen before in Flushing. <\/p>\n

Bichette talked about pressing too much to deliver that \u201cmoment\u201d \u2014 for his teammates, for the fans. It\u2019s also another way of suggesting that he wants to prove his worth, and he probably isn\u2019t alone in feeling that sentiment. <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I didn\u2019t anticipate it affecting the way I would play,\u201d Bichette said. <\/p>\n

In Stearns\u2019 winter blueprint, Bichette is taking the place of homegrown slugger Pete Alonso, the former No. 3 hitter, and those are some huge polar bear paws to fill. Look at Semien. He\u2019s a multiple Silver Slugger who twice finished third for MVP but also was traded straight up for Brandon Nimmo, who\u2019s off to a fast start for the Rangers (.360 batting average, .949 OPS). \u201cI\u2019d say as a group, we\u2019d all like to do better,\u201d Semien said recently. <\/p>\n

Polanco has been kept at DH lately by an Achilles condition, but Mendoza said he\u2019s \u201cclose\u201d to returning to first base. <\/p>\n

The Mets sat the red-hot Robert in Monday\u2019s series opener against the Cardinals for the sake of load management \u2014 he previously had played three games in four days \u2014 so there\u2019s still a feeling-out process on how to use the new pieces on the roster to optimal effect. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the same for Benge, a 23-year-old rookie who had the thrill of his young career with an Opening Day homer. But it\u2019s important to remember that there are only 19 career at-bats on his resume, and growing pains are unavoidable. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s learning as he goes,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of his development. We got to continue to support him and give him opportunities.\u201d <\/p>\n

The 2026 Mets have an idea of what their identity should be, and this isn\u2019t it. They\u2019ll get there, but the wait has been painful to watch at times.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball’s Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A big part of David Stearns\u2019 winter strategy was creating a Mets roster that wouldn\u2019t carry the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":{"0":"post-660066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mets","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-mets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkmets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116338530470768296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}