Just Mets

This may be the most obvious statement of the year, but the loss of David Wright hurts. The Mets are not only losing their captain, but they’ve lost one of, if not their best, bats in the line-up, his on-field leadership and his defensive play at 3rd base.

There’s no tip-toing around it: This is a tough blow for this team to take early in this hopeful season, but all of that said, it’s one that they can withstand…

Nine games into the season, the Mets pitching staff has been unsurprisingly brilliant. The starters have posted a 2.76 ERA (3rd best in NL, 5th in MLB) and even their bullpen has been good with an ERAof 2.59 (8th best in NL, 10th in MLB).

Matt Harvey (2-0, 2.25 ERA) and Jacob deGrom (1-1, 1.46 ERA) have given fans what they’ve hoped for in each of their two starts, Bartolo Colon (2-0, 2.77 ERA) has been better than I thought and even Jon Niese (1-0, 1.59 ERA) has been pretty darn solid. The only Mets starter that has not had a quality start has been Dillon Gee (0-1, 9.00 ERA) who allowed five earned runs in five innings pitched in his only start this season.

The reason some people are expecting the Mets to contend this season is their pitching, and specifically their starting pitching. Even without Zack Wheeler, this team has the guns in the rotation and in the farm system to put together great pitching performance after great pitching performance on a nightly basis, and so far they’ve done this. Without David Wright anchoring this line-up, the Mets pitching will need to hold true to what it’s been able to accomplish in the first three series of this season. The more they pitch, the less they will need to rely on the offense of Wright, at least on a short-term basis.

Another way this team can survive while Wright is on the 15-day disabled list is the other guys in their line-up. Lucas Duda (.353, 1 HR, 7 RBI, .964 OPS) is proving that his 2014 season was no fluke and that he could be on his way to becoming one of the most feared power hitters in the National League. In his last two games, Duda has hit a home run, three doubles and driven in five runs. He’s hitting lefties (.429), he’s hitting righties (.333), he’s hitting at home (.308), he’s hitting on the road (.381) and he’s hitting for power with five extra base hits in nine games (leads the team) with a .559 slugging percentage (also leads the team). Lucas is starting to become a guy who looks like he could put a team on his back, and that’s exactly the kind of thing this team needs right now.

There are a few other hitters that can make an impact as well, one being Curtis Granderson. While Grandy’s numbers may not jump out at you (.185), he’s been a lot better than his batting average would indicate. Granderson’s been getting on base like crazy out of the leadoff spot. He’s walked 10 times (most in MLB) in nine games after walking just 79 times in 141 games all of last season. Not only is Granderson seeing the ball better, but he’s hitting the ball hard–he’s just hit into some bad luck. In Wednesday night’s game against the Phillies, Granderson ripped two opposite field singles going against the overshift–a positive sign.

Another guy is Travis d’Arnaud, who was a completely different guy after his re-call from Triple-A last season, and now, he looks as if he’s poised for a potential break-out season. Hitting .333 (2nd on team,  with a home run and eight RBI (leads team), d’Arnaud is really starting to look like the player we thought the Mets were getting when they made the R.A. Dickey trade two offseasons ago. Now hitting in the 2-hole, where Wright was hitting prior to the injury, Travis has a chance to flourish at the top of this line-up and prove himself as one of the best young offensive catchers in this game.

Honorable mention here goes to Michael Cuddyer, who was the Mets big offseason acquisition. He’s a professional hitter, appears to be okay after getting drilled in the hand, and is someone who is going to get his hits and drive in his runs as long as he’s in the line-up.

If the Mets can continue doing these things, they can absolutely survive without David Wright, but if and only if this is a short-term issue. If Wright suffers a set-back and this hamstring injury proves to be worse than anyone is suspecting, this team will eventually begin to suffer. However, if this is short-term, a couple weeks to a month max, this team is more than capable of getting through this.