If there’s one factor to remove from final 12 months’s Mets, it’s that even the slowest of begins will not be insurmountable.
The 2024 Mets stumbled to an 0-5 document, then spiraled to an even-bleaker 22-33 mark, earlier than they rebounded with an epic summer time surge that they rode all the way in which to the NLCS.
That ought to give the Atlanta Braves at the very least a modicum of hope.
Certainly, the free-falling Braves are the NL East workforce attempting to dig out of an early gap in 2025. Sunday’s 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins dropped the Braves to 1-8 — a surprising actuality even the boldest of baseball prognosticators couldn’t have envisioned.
“I don’t wish this on anybody in a competitive arena,” supervisor Brian Snitker mentioned final week, after the Braves fell to 0-7. “What we’re going through is tough, very tough.”
It’s a brutal starting for a Braves workforce that Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA mannequin projected to win the loaded NL East with 92 wins.
By means of 9 video games, the Braves have scored an MLB-low 24 runs. They’ve managed one run or fewer in 5 of their eight losses. Atlanta has hit six house runs — the identical whole the Yankees’ Aaron Choose wanted solely seven video games to succeed in.
The Braves entered Monday six video games behind the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies (7-2) and 5 video games behind the second-place Mets (6-3). These three groups, all of whom made the playoffs final 12 months, have been anticipated to have interaction in a season-long battle for NL East supremacy.
And naturally, they nonetheless might. The Braves aren’t even one-sixteenth into their season, and a nine-game pattern is far too small to supply an correct predictor of the place a workforce will find yourself.
However after so many seasons of attempting to climb their means up the NL East standings, the Mets should really feel good now about being a workforce that’s being chased, not chasing others.
The Mets, with elevated expectations after their $765-million-signing of Juan Soto, entered Monday’s house collection opener towards the Marlins tied for the sixth-best document within the majors.
That they had gained 4 video games in a row, together with a sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays of their first collection at Citi Area of the season.
And maybe most encouragingly, there’s loads of room for the Mets to enhance.
Francisco Lindor entered Monday with a .172 common. Juan Soto was hitting .250. That star-powered pair had mixed for one house run and 6 RBI.
The eventual returns of Sean Manaea (indirect) and Frankie Montas (lat) ought to reinforce a beginning rotation that, on paper, seems to current the Mets’ greatest query marks.
Getting again second baseman Jeff McNeil (indirect) and catcher Francisco Alvarez (hand) ought to assist a backside of the order that’s struggled, too.
On the middle of the Mets’ sturdy begin has been the hot-hitting Pete Alonso, who entered Monday with three house runs and 11 RBI, and a deep bullpen with an MLB-best 1.29 ERA.
“We have nasty stuff down there,” reliever Reed Garrett mentioned over the weekend. “We have a lot of guys who are going to come in and execute pitches. Everybody’s done an amazing job.”
And with three come-from-behind wins already, the Mets appear to have carried their never-say-die id from final season — after they led the majors with eight ninth-inning comebacks — over to this one.
“We saw it a lot last year,” supervisor Carlos Mendoza mentioned after Saturday’s walk-off win over Toronto. “We got a lot of these guys back. Every year is different. It’s still early, but those are some good signs.”
Once more, it’s a small pattern measurement, however the early returns on the Mets are sturdy.
They nonetheless should grapple with the Phillies, who gained the NL East final 12 months. And nobody is counting out the Braves, who gained the division six years in a row from 2018-23.
The Braves have reinforcements coming, too, with catcher Sean Murphy (rib) anticipated again Tuesday, ace Spencer Strider (elbow surgical procedure restoration) not far behind him, and do-it-all celebrity Ronald Acuña Jr. (knee surgical procedure restoration) on monitor to debut subsequent month.
However no workforce has made the playoffs after an 0-7 begin.
“Those guys in there are more aware of it than y’all are,” Snitker mentioned of his Braves’ stunning struggles. “They feel it. It’s hard. And there’s nothing you can do but to fight your way out of it.”
Initially Revealed: April 7, 2025 at 5:59 PM EDT
