The New York Mets have been spending big with Steve Cohen, but letting these former players walk was a good call based on how they’ve played on new teams.
Despite dropping two games to the Braves and falling a game further behind them in the NL East standings, the New York Mets have enjoyed a solid, though unspectacular start the 2023 season. More impressive is that they’ve been able to do this despite their biggest-money signing of the offseason, Justin Verlander, taking the bump yet.
Since Steve Cohen took over the Mets, spending has been as far away from an issue as possible. But more importantly, the franchise has been clear about the guys they are willing to pay and, just as importantly, the players they are willing to let walk.
Given that the Mets look good enough, especially as they get healthier, to start the year, they look smart for not bringing these three players back because, point blank, it’s not been a good start with their new teams.
Mets: 3 former players failing on their new teams
3. Michael Conforto hasn’t had the juice with the SF Giants
It’s been a minute since Michael Conforto was with the Mets considering that he missed the entirety of the 2022 season due to injury and never signed after his contract in New York ran up following the 2021 campaign. But that was the last team he played for before signing with the San Francisco Giants this offseason.
The good news for the Giants is that Conforto has hit four home runs on the season and has 10 RBI to his credit. The bad news is that the rest of the picture is none too pretty for the veteran outfielder this season in the Bay.
Conforto has posted a measly slash line of .193/.311/.341 in 26 games played this season. He has just one extra-base hit outside of his four homers and, while he is second on the Giants in walks with 13, he also leads the team in strikeouts with 34. It’s basically been an all-or-nothing approach for him at the plate.
Landing on Conforto after trying to sign Aaron Judge this offseason has to feel like a punch to the gut for San Francisco, but it’s made even worse by the fact that Confrto’s lowest OPS from 2017-21 with the Mets was .729 and he’s a full 0.07 points lower than that to start his time with the Giants.
2. Mets look smart for letting Taijuan Walker go to the Phillies
Taijuan Walker spent two years in New York and, after a middling first season with the Mets, he was one of the stalwarts of the rotation a season ago with arguably the best campaign of his career. In 2022, Walker posted a 3.49 ERA and 1.19 WHIP to compile a nice 12-5 record that helped propel the club into the postseason comfortably.
After his run with the Mets, though, the club wasn’t willing to pay up in the way that the Phillies were to the tune of a four-year, $72 million contract for the 30-year-old righty, which landed him on New York’s division rival for the 2023 season. And thus far, it’s looking like New York was the one making the right call in that situation.
Through six starts in Philadelphia, Walker is just 2-2 but has posted a ballooned 6.91 ERA and 1.60 WHIP, both of which are by far the highest of his career. What’s more, after posting a 132/45 strikeout-to-walk ratio a year ago, that figure is now a depressing 29/17.
Walker has dealt with some forearm tightness, which may be contributing to his struggles. But the fact of the matter is that the Phillies paid him to be one of the anchors of their rotation this season and he’s been anything but, leading to the team’s lackluster start after they made it to the World Series last year. And if he doesn’t start turning it around, Philadelphia will certainly feel less than thrilled about that investment.
1. Jacob deGrom has been dealing for the Rangers, but health issues are already cropping up
Make absolutely no mistake about it, Jacob deGrom has been his normal dominant self when he’s been on the mound for the Texas Rangers this season after signing a massive five-year, $185 million deal to leave the Mets this offseason.
Over six starts in the Lone Star State, deGrom has a 2.67 ERA and minuscule 0.76 WHIP while striking out an absurd 45 batters and walking only four over 30.1 innings pitched. When he’s been out there, he’s been exactly what the Rangers hoped they were paying for in free agency to get the big fish: An ace.
So why are we saying he’s failing in Texas?
It all comes down to health. deGrom is currently on the 15-day IL with inflammation in his right elbow. This comes after he missed a large portion of the spring with an injury as well.
Whenever the Rangers handed out that lucrative contract to the right-hander, the big concern for everyone was his injury history. After all, the now-34-year-old isn’t a spring chicken out there and had pitched in just 26 games over the previous two seasons in New York. As such, it was a risky gamble for Texas to hand out that kind of money for five years given that him staying healthy was not guaranteed.
As such, for deGrom to have landed on the IL and already been slowed down by two injuries in 2023 as the calendar just turns to May has to have every Rangers fan and everyone in the organization feeling a bit of panic. Yes, he’s great when he’s on the bump — but if health is already an issue, how much faith is there that things are going to get better as he gets older?