A big season with even larger expectations will have a lot of moving parts, which will prove vital in the New York Mets’ quest for a second consecutive year of postseason baseball.
While the storylines regarding this club are immeasurable, with just hours remaining until Opening Day, we did our best to pick out the five most crucial ones as the new year begins on Thursday in Houston against the Astros.
Can Juan Soto raise the Mets to another level?
This is a question that does not really have any other option other than “yes.” Signing the richest contract in North American professional sports history, Soto is just entering the prime of a career that is already on track for Cooperstown.
He has an abundance of protection around him in Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, and should at least challenge the production that he put up last season with the Yankees (41 home runs, .989 OPS). The objective is crystal clear, however: Soto is here to take the Mets to the next level. The postseason is now a must for a team that has made a habit of missing it more times than not over the last 63 years.
How will the rotation hold up?
Now in his second year in charge as president of baseball operations, David Stearns has made his stance on starting pitching rather clear. The blockbuster, marquee signing is not a necessity. Instead, he will take his chances putting promising talents in the pitching lab to unlock something new.
It paid off last year when he got Luis Severino back on track and received a career year out of Sean Manaea and David Peterson. Severino and Jose Quintana are gone; Manaea is on the injured list, and so is one of this year’s new projects in veteran righty Frankie Montas.
That leaves New York with Kodai Senga, who pitched just 5.1 regular-season innings last year, a converted former Yankees closer in Clay Holmes — who dazzled so much in spring training that he is the Opening Day starter — Peterson, another strong spring supporter in Griffin Canning, and Tylor Megill. This is not the show-stopping rotation to mirror the caliber of the lineup the Mets are boasting. Still, the organization has continued to maintain the confidence in the arms they have rather than going out and making late-spring deals.
Francisco Lindor’s start
Part of the Mets’ nightmarish start last season coincided with Lindor’s mighty struggles during the first two months of the season. The superstar shortstop batted .198 with seven home runs and 23 RBI in his first 48 games of the season while his team went 21-27.
He was moved into the lead-off spot, and it all came together. Across his final 104 games, he sashed .308/.377/.568 (.945 OPS) with 26 home runs and 68 RBI. As one of the sparkplugs for the Mets’ turnaround (they went 62-42 in those games), he finished second in the NL MVP voting.
Lindor has the lead-off spot all to himself to start the season, and avoiding a slow start will only help the Mets state their intentions as a legitimate threat in the National League.
Pete Alonso’s prove-it year, again
Dreams of a long-term, $200 million deal never came to fruition for Alonso over the winter after having one of his worst statistical seasons as a pro (34 home runs, .788 OPS).
An “exhausting” negotiating period ultimately led him back to the Mets for at least one more season, as his two-year, $54 million pact contains an opt-out after the 2025 campaign. While Alonso will have the opportunity to break the Mets’ all-time career home-run record — he’s 26 away from tying Darryl Strawberry’s mark of 252 — he will also have the opportunity to piece together a big year and then test out the free agency waters again in hopes of adding the long-term, big-money contract that he and Scott Boras had likely discussed all winter.
Hitting behind Soto should help him get that much more to hit.
What’s on 2nd?
The only question in the Mets’ infield is at second base, and it could linger throughout the first half of the season.
Jeff McNeil was given the starting the job at the start of camp, even with a career-worst 2024 season (.238, .692 OPS) that included injury issues in tow. He is starting the year on the injured list with an oblique injury, which has opened the door for Brett Baty to take the starting job on Opening Day.
The former can’t-miss third-base prospect has been unable to find any sort of sustained success at the major-league level, but he put together as good a showing in spring training as anyone in the majors this year, batting .353 with a 1.186 OPS, four home runs, and 11 RBI in 51 at-bats.
Showing he can stick at second base defensively, he’s the favorite to get the bulk of the at-bats against right-handed pitchers, with Luisangel Acuna potentially getting looks against lefties. The 22-year-old was a vital stopgap last season when Lindor went down with a back injury in September, but he has struggled in Triple-A and at spring training.
If Baty struggles in the majors for a fourth straight season, Acuna could find himself starting. However, if either of the two can make it stick at the position, it would be difficult to pry them off of it once McNeil returns.
