It's early, but New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is not getting what he paid for. The most expensive team in baseball history lost for the 11th time in their last 14 games Sunday afternoon, this time getting blown out at home by the Colorado Rockies (COL 13, NY 6). The Mets are 17-18 on the season, and seven games out in the NL East.
Cohen's pregame motivational tweet did not have the intended effect Sunday, it seems.
To be fair though, it was a spectacular weather day in New York. Cohen had that part right.
The scary part? The Mets are doing this against what was supposed to be a soft part of the schedule. They've lost four straight series, including dropping two of three to the Washington Nationals, getting swept by the Detroit Tigers, and losing two of three to the Rockies. An opportunity to pad the win total has been missed these last two weeks.
Although the Mets surrendered 13 runs Sunday, the biggest culprit during this 3-11 stretch has been the offense. They've scored a total of 46 runs in their last 14 games, or 3.29 per game. Seven times in those 14 games they scored no more than two runs. As a team, the Mets are hitting .223/.279/.359 over the last two weeks. That just isn't going to get it done.
The Mets called up top prospects Francisco Álvarez and Brett Baty last month, so they've already played those cards. Mark Vientos is hitting .330/.414/.661 with nine home runs in Triple-A, so the Mets could promote him, though getting him into the lineup will require some creativity with the infield already full. It can be done though. Position isn't a good excuse.
Really, the best thing the Mets can do to help an underwhelming offense is remain patient, and wait for veterans like Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte -- they are far from the only culprits, I'm just naming two players -- to begin to play to the back of their baseball cards. Impact trades are difficult to make this time of year.
Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander returned earlier this week and the two future Hall of Famers should give the rotation a nice shot in the arm. Other than that, what you see is what you're going to get from the Mets. They're better than their 17-18 record and much better than 3-11 in their last 14 games. We just haven't seen that team yet.
