As of May 1st, the New York Mets are tied for the best record in baseball with a record of 21-10 and are in 1st place in the NL East, a place where I personally did not think the Mets would be a month into the season.
The NL East was known to be very competitive going into the season with the stacked Braves, Phillies, and Mets teams all trying to compete for a playoff spot with the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins trying their best to play “spoiler” this season since they are not playoff ready yet.
The Mets had many injuries going into the season, specifically to Sean Manaea, who is extremely important to this rotation, and Frankie Montas, newly acquired starter with something to prove. These injuries forced the Mets to rely on pitchers who were most likely not going to be relied on before the injuries, such as Tylor Megill and David Peterson.
These injuries did not affect the Mets rotation whatsoever though, because the whole Mets pitching staff has the best ERA in the league with a 2.64 ERA, 22 points lower than the second place San Diego Padres who have a 2.86 ERA. The New York Mets pitching staff has been phenomenal to start off the year and the main reason the Mets are the best team in the MLB currently. But I will point out that injuries are a main concern, Manaea and Montas are already bad enough, the injuries cannot keep happening or the Mets pitching staff will be in trouble.
Pitching can only get a team so far, the hitters have to score runs in order for a team to win, and the Mets offense has been above and beyond to start the year. Francisco Lindor has finally started the season hot for the first time in his Mets tenure, batting .308 with 6 home runs and 16 RBI while batting leadoff for a Mets team who thrives on momentum. Lindor has led-off games with hits constantly, and when the Mets score the first run of the game, they usually don’t blow the lead.
While Lindor has been extremely successful and important to this team, Pete Alonso is arguably the best hitter in the MLB currently, batting .343 with 7 home runs and 28 RBI. Alonso was single handedly the only hitter who was producing the first two weeks of the season before Lindor hit up, some games wouldn’t have been won without him.
Lindor and Alonso have been the main reasons this team has been incredibly successful, but baseball is a team sport. Rookie Luisangel Acuna and veteran Tyrone Taylor have been extremely clutch either on defense or offense to start the year. On almost every game recap I watch, I either see an Acuna clutch hit and/or a Tyrone Taylor diving catch or clutch hit. I just wanted to shout them out because they are the main reasons why this lineup has so much depth and the New York Mets have been so successful to start off the year.
“The New York Mets are currently the best team in baseball” is not a statement I thought I would ever get to say, but it is true. I hope that this Mets team can keep up their successes into the summer because I think that this team has a shot to go all the way this year.