3 New York Mets to blame for disappointing start to season

1. Max Scherzer has been anything but the Mets ace…and now he’s injured

As mentioned, Max Scherzer missed his start on Tuesday against the Reds because of neck spasms that have been bothering him, which made way for Peterson to deliver another uninspiring performance on the mound.

To be quite clear, we are not going to blame Max Scherzer for getting injured — that’s just an unfortunate break of the game, especially for a 38-year-old.

What Scherzer can be blamed for, however, is how poorly he’s pitched by his standards when he has been out there for the Mets. If the season ended today, Scherzer’s ERA (5.56) would be the highest of his career by 1.13 and his WHIP (1.41) would also be the worst in his career. Despite making five starts, he’s also only amassed 22.2 innings pitched, putting him at under 5.0 innings per start.

Putting it plainly, it’s been a disaster for Scherzer, especially given the situation. With Justin Verlander out of the rotation to begin the year, the Mets needed their ace to step up and be a dominant tone-setter for the rotation. Instead, they’ve gotten the worst version of Mad Max that we’ve seen — and that’s before we even take into consideration his 10-game suspension.

The hope would be that this current injury will allow him to rest and get treatment that will aid Scherzer in getting right. But what we’ve seen from him to this point is not anything in the same stratosphere as the pitcher we saw last year for the Mets.