Cause For Concern In Queens

When the 2018 Major League Baseball season got underway, things looked up for the New York Mets. They got off to a 12-2 start and looked great over the first couple of weeks of the season. Now here we sit on June 4th, and those pleasant feelings from the start of the season seem a distant memory. Mets fans had hope going into the year, with that 12-2 start making things feel even better. Since then, those wheels have fallen off and some don't feel that the Mets can really get that mojo back.

They go into the off day today after getting swept in a four game series, at home no less, by the Chicago Cubs. With that, the Mets have now lost 11 of their last 14. One guy I feel bad for more than anybody else is Jacob deGrom. He's 4-0 on the year, with a 1.49 ERA, second lowest in baseball. Over his past eight starts, he's allowed one run or fewer in each, with a 0.57 ERA over that span. Yet the team is 2-6 in those games. It makes me feel bad that he's hands down this teams best pitcher and the team is totally wasting him and his talents this year. Steven Matz also pitched pretty well against the Cubs yesterday, going seven strong innings. Syndergaard, too, when he's really on his game, can be great if he can live up to his potential. That's really about it.

Injuries have piled up for the Mets right now. Jay Bruce is trying to play through an injury. Just look at the guys on the disabled list. Yoenis Cespedes, Wilmer Flores, Todd Frazier, AJ Ramos, Noah Syndergaard, Travis d'Arnaud, Juan Lagares, T.J. Rivera and Anthony Swarzak are all out of the lineup due to various injuries. There's nothing on this team that makes you really think that they have a shot at making it into the playoffs. Outside of the young pitchers and maybe Ahmed Rosario, there's no real depth and youth in this organization.

It makes you want to pull your hair out as a Mets fan because you know that the 12-2 start they got off to was a glimmer of hope. What really happened at the beginning of the year was  just a bandage to mask what the real problems are with this team. How much they rely on Yoenis Cespedes, the lack of youth and depth, the fact that this team is getting older. Jose Bautista is 37, Adrian Gonzales is 36. They do have young talent on this team, guys like Brandon Nimmp and Michael Conforto. Both of whom have struggled as of late. They have a few young horses, which isn't really helping at the moment because nothing is really clicking. Nobody on this team is hitting over .300, the highest batting average is Asdrúbal Cabrera who's hitting .292. Its been a rough go of it for the Mets, with nobody really finding a mojo to be able to hit and support their pitching staff. When you score only six runs in a four game series against Chicago, you know there's a problem.

If things don't start getting better for the Mets soon, this could be a very long summer.