3 Mets players who finished spring training on a cold streak

Spring Training is now officially complete for the New York Mets and the regular season is finally here. Certain players took this time to sharpen their skill set while others used this time to simply shake off the rust. While the games do not technically count, players should still go through every opportunity to get in shape for Opening Day.

There were only a select few hitters on the Mets roster that performed well, however, most of them showed that they still needed more work at the plate. As for the pitching side of things, there is not much to complain about as the staff was spectacular this spring.

When it comes to cold streaks, these three Mets players could not have closed out the Grapefruit League in a worse way.

1) Jose Quintana

Jose Quintana never found his groove this spring and struggled a lot through his 5 games of play. This may make you question why the Mets decided to name him as the Opening Day starter instead of other worthy candidates.

His last two starts before the beginning of the year were definitely ones to forget. He pitched a total of 7.1 innings and gave up a whopping 9 ER. Quintana also gave up 11H with 5BB, while still managing to strike out 9 batters.

Other than the strikeouts, there was nothing else positive that could have been taken away from the southpaw. The Mets have turned to him, along with other guys, to take on a heavier load with Kodai Senga on the IL for the time being. It seems like he hasn’t really handled the pressure all too well since being appointed to this new role in the rotation, but then again it is still just spring training.

There is no expectation for Quintana to be the Mets ace, however, he is expected to be a solid middle-of-the-road pitcher who can easily hand the game over to the bullpen. We can only assume that with the more reps he gets on the mound, the better he will be moving forward.

2) Francisco Lindor

Francisco Lindor is probably one of the last names you’d believe would be on a list like this and yet he is here because of his underwhelming spring. He has not been seeing the ball well and has not looked like himself at the plate.

Since March 21st, Lindor has gone 1-15 and his stat line proved just how bad he was in the last couple of games. Lindor only totaled 1 RBI and was not even able to get his batting average over .100.

This club will always see Lindor as one of the veteran leaders, looking to him for guidance. He is just going through a bit of a rough patch but fans would rather him get that out of the way now rather then to do it later. On the other hand, Lindor’s OPS is another area that should be mentioned before we sweep his spring under the rug. He usually sits around a 1.000 OPS but that was not the case at all in 2024. He ended up sitting a .433 which is not even close to what fans are used to seeing.

With that now out in the open, there is no reason to not believe that Lindor can turn this ship around and return to his habits of old. Both 2022 and 2023 were great years for him as a Met to which he should be able to continue his productivity by having another fantastic year in 2024.

3) Starling Marte

Starling Marte is the last player on this list and he is one of the players on the Mets roster that fans are wishing could return to his 2022 form. His health played a major factor in his 2023 season, keeping him away from the game for a good amount of time.

He is now, according to him, supposed to be in full health and ready to go but his performance through the last couple of spring training games did not show that progress. Marte went 3-16 dating back to March 19th and sat around the .187 range for batting average. He was able to score a couple of runs during these appearances along with drawing a couple of walks as well but that would be the extent of it.

Other than those few positive outcomes, Marte continues to be a shell of his former self. It is almost as if he looks lost at the dish, not knowing exactly what to do when certain situations present themselves. He needs a lot more AB’s to get back into the swing of things and he will get just that if he is able to make it through the season without any setbacks.

Marte may not be able to go back to an All-Star caliber player but there is no excuse as to why he cannot put up solid numbers for the Mets in 2024.

This article was originally published on risingapple.com as 3 Mets players who finished spring training on a cold streak.