Meet the new Mets.
After a 2023 season that began with sky-high expectations spiraled into a 75-87 disappointment, the Mets are making their goal for 2024 crystal clear: They intend to win.
“Last year is last year,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said Wednesday during a workout at Citi Field, shortly before Opening Day was pushed from Thursday to Friday due to rain in the forecast.
“You leave it in the past. It’s one of those [things] where nobody really cares. We all have moved on. We learned from it but we are in 2024, and the expectations are to win. Nobody’s here saying, ‘We’ll see how it goes.’ Nah, it’s, ‘We’re gonna win.’”
The Mets, with a historic payroll far exceeding $300 million, entered last season with World Series aspirations but failed to overcome a rash of injuries, including star closer Edwin Diaz’s season-ending patellar tear, and inconsistency from multiple key veterans. A slow start prompted the Mets to become full-blown sellers at the trade deadline, shipping away high-priced co-aces Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, among others.
This offseason — the first under president of baseball operations David Stearns — saw the Mets hire Carlos Mendoza to replace Buck Showalter as manager and hand out short-term contracts to veterans including Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, Harrison Bader and JD Martinez rather than make a marquee free-agent splash.
The Mets believe those additions, along with a returning core highlighted by Lindor, Pete Alonso and a healthy Diaz, will allow them to contend.
“We’re here to win,” said Mendoza, who spent the past six seasons on the Yankees’ staff, including the last four as bench coach.
“Outside projections and things like that might say differently, but we do believe that we have a really good team. I don’t buy the fact that expectations are low for the New York Mets in 2024. Regardless of what happened here last year, this is a very talented team. … Our job is to go out there and prove [it to] people and embrace those expectations.”
FanGraphs’ ZiPS Projections and Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA metrics both predict the Mets to finish with just under 84 wins. The Miami Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks both won 84 games last year to claim the final two National League Wild Card spots.
The Mets, still paying portions of Verlander’s contract with Houston and Scherzer’s with Texas, enter 2024 with a $302 million payroll to lead all teams, according to the sports salary tracker Spotrac.
Lindor hit 31 home runs and stole 31 bases last year, making him the fourth player in franchise history to record a 30-30 season. Alonso slugged 46 home runs last season, clinching the third 40-home campaign of his five-year career. No other Met boasts more than one.
Mendoza pointed to a versatile lineup and retooled bullpen among the Mets’ strengths.
“I like the energy in the clubhouse,” added Diaz, who signed a five-year, $102 million deal shortly before suffering his devastating knee injury during last March’s World Baseball Classic.
“I think we’ve got a really good team. We improved our defense. [The] hitting department is really good. Our bullpen is really good. I think our starting pitching is really good, too. … I think we’ve got a chance to make the playoffs.”
Hanging over the Mets is that Alonso, a Scott Boras client, is due to become a free agent after the season. The Mets will also start the year without ace Kodai Senga as he recovers from a shoulder strain.
Left-hander Jose Quintana, who is set to start Opening Day with Senga out, stressed the need for the Mets’ to maintain a “day-by-day” approach.
“We want to show how good we are,” Quintana said Wednesday. “We’re really good. We believe in that.”
The Mets’ optimism echoes that of owner Steve Cohen, who said during spring training that qualifying for the playoffs would make 2024 a success.
That pursuit begins Friday afternoon against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field.
“The beauty of Opening Day is everybody starts with the same record,” Lindor said. “Everybody starts with the same numbers. You get to build from day one, and we’ll see who can end up climbing the most stairs.”