2015 Spotlight: New York Mets

The New York Mets may not be the most exciting team in baseball this year, but with their electric starting rotation and a few good breaks from key veterans, they could wind up being fairly competitive in the NL East. The team finished 2014 with a decent 79-83 record, leading them to sign right fielder Michael Cuddyer to a two-year deal on the very first day of free agency.

Fan-favorite and all-around good guy Michael Cuddyer.

Cuddy will look to spark some energy into the offense, which includes third baseman David Wright, first baseman Lucas Duda and fellow outfielder Curtis Granderson. Those three veterans will make up the meat of the batting order in 2015, as long as they stay healthy and productive. I project this team to have a final regular-season record of 83-79, taking a few steps forward but missing the playoffs once again.

Can the Grandy-man rediscover his stroke?

Who to watch: This is an easy one. The dynamic youngsters in the starting rotation, namely 2014 Rookie of the Year Jake deGrom and returning Ace Matt Harvey, should be pretty fun to watch due to their high strikeout/nine innings-pitched rate (9.2, 9.9 respectively).

Talk about a Dyamic Duo,,,

If deGrom builds on his award-winning 2014 and proves that he isn’t some fluke, and Harvey shows that he is more than fully recovered from his Tommy John surgery back in 2013, they create a pretty spectacular 1-2 punch in the front of the Mets’ rotation for years to come.

Sleeper: One of the best pitching prospects over the past two years has been Noah Syndergaard. After spending the last five years in the minors, the highly-touted right-hander is ready to make his mark on the big leagues. Though his 2014 numbers look underwhelming, he still posted healthy totals for strikeouts (145) and home runs allowed (11) for his 133 innings pitched. If he can avoid walking so many batters (43 in 2014), while still maintaining the strikeout numbers, then the Mets could have another young award-winning starter on their hands.

Syndergaard at the 2013 futures game.

Bust: There are two clear thorns in the side of this club: shortstop and relief pitching. Wilmer Flores is currently penciled in at short for opening day. This is the same Flores that has gathered negative offensive value over the last two years, meaning he was worse than an average replacement-level player. Since he isn’t really expected to be anything special, I’ll go ahead and say the entire bullpen will be a bust this year. There were plenty of relievers on this offseason’s free agent market, but the Mets decides to stand-pat with what they had. The two most notable names in their relief corps are Dillon Gee and Rule-5 draft pick Sean Gilmartin. Gee projects to be the long-reliever with Gilmartin probably handling mid-range duties. Bored yet?

Looks like that killer goatee couldn't keep Gee in the rotation...

Bold prediction: David Wright struggles through the entire season, falling to mediocrity for the rest of his career. I’ll be honest; I’ve never been a huge Wright fan. I think he had three really stellar years in the prime of his career, a couple of slightly above-average campaigns and the comfort of a major market to back him up. 

Something ain't right with Wright...

He has been pretty good over the past four-plus years. Not great, but certainly good. My bold predictions is that 2015 is the year where he comes crashing down.