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By Chris Dial
The Mets have managed to sink to the bottom of the National League East. There are still positive aspects to the season and certainly skills to build on for 2024. While the hitting is always under the microscope, having a defender give away runs in the field definitely has to be prevented. It is a routinely overlooked aspect of a player’s quality, mostly due to a mistrust of defensive stats. Even with Statcast providing tight measurements, some fans still struggle to budge from cliched commentary.
As a team, the Mets have summed up to be notably below average. Not as bad as the worst teams in the league, like Oakland or the Cardinals, but nothing to write home about, and poor defense coupled with poor hitting means a losing season.
The Mets opened the season with corner outfielders that were average or slightly above in Mark Canha and Starling Marte. Both were also decent hitters in recent years. What was overlooked was both were 34 years old. Additionally, Marte was coming off an injury. What happened next couldn’t have been more predictable. Both struggled at the plate. Marte struggled to stay on the field, and both saw their defense drop considerably. Canha still managed to be average as a fielder, but Marte, who when healthy was a plus defender, lots range dramatically, and was a bad fielder, posting one of the Mets lower runs saved (-5) in two thirds of the season so far. Defense in the right field corner can result in extra bases in a hurry.
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