New York Mets 2023 Season In Review: Surprises and Disappointments

Now that the 2023 season is over for the New York Mets, we will spend the next several weeks taking a look at the big picture. This deep dive will be broken down into phases every weekday, continuing today with a look at some of the biggest surprises and disappointments of the year.

Normally, the surprises and disappointments portion of the Season in Review series is pretty straightforward to write. It’s hard to feel like talking about anything but disappointment after an epic flop of a 2023 season that saw the New York Mets conduct a fire sale in July and clean house after the year. While it was tempting just to do six disappointments, there were a few positive surprises to discuss. Let’s start with the good and look at some surprises for the 2023 Mets.

Surprises

Kodai Senga

One of the bigger surprises of 2023 was the emergence of Senga as not just a competent big league starter but a potential ace. The Mets were very careful with their rotation to help Senga have the best chance of acclimating to American baseball, which included an extra day of rest more often than not. The results paid off in spades as Senga was dominant over the last four months of the season and gave the Mets an ace even after they dealt away two future Hall of Famers at the deadline.

Francisco Alvarez

It sure felt like the Mets weren’t expecting Alvarez to be a factor this season after signing Omar Narvaez to a two-year deal over the winter while simultaneously giving Tomas Nido a two-year contract extension. An early injury to Narvaez cleared the way for Alvarez to make the big club and he seized his opportunity, slugging 25 homers as a rookie while displaying continued improvement on the defensive side of his game throughout the year. Alvarez’s ability to handle a big-league pitching staff as a 21-year old was a very pleasant surprise as it appears the Mets have finally solved their long-standing issues behind the plate.

Brandon Nimmo’s Power

The Mets gave Nimmo an eight-year deal worth $162 million last winter and would have been happy if he was able to simply duplicate his strong 2022 campaign, where he hit .274 with 16 homers and 64 RBIs. Nimmo was on pace for that early on but decided to make a conscious decision to hit for more power and set a new career high with 24 homers despite playing in only one more game than he did in 2022. The newfound power makes Nimmo more of an all-around threat as a hitter and could be very beneficial for the Mets going forward.

Disappointments

The Co-Ace Experiment Flops

The Mets’ decision to replace Jacob deGrom with Justin Verlander meant the team was relying on two pitchers approaching 40 years old to anchor their rotation. Between injuries and inconsistency, the Mets didn’t get nearly enough production out of Verlander and Max Scherzer, which helped put them in a massive hole by the trade deadline. The end result saw the Mets pull the rip cord on the model by sending both future Hall of Famers packing for prospects.

Starling Marte

Marte, who underwent double groin surgery in the offseason, never looked right this season. The Mets saw Marte’s power basically disappear as he hit just five home runs and his batting average dipped from .292 to .248 while his OPS plummeted nearly 200 points year-to-year. Another issue with his groins led the Mets to shut Marte down after August with the hopes that he will be healthier in 2024.

Buck Showalter’s decision making

While Showalter seemed to hit all the right buttons in 2022, everything went the opposite way in 2023. Bullpen management was problematic for Showalter, who couldn’t get the most out of his relievers after Edwin Diaz was lost for the season, and his stubbornness in regards to finding playing time for young players meant the team gave too long a leash to the likes of Daniel Vogelbach (although front office interference may have aided in that one). The Mets played hard for Showalter down the stretch but it was too little too late as new President of Baseball Operations David Stearns had Showalter fired before taking over so that he could pick his own manager.