3 X-Factors For The 2024 Mets

Posted by Patrick Gorman 3/9/2024

With spring training officially underway at Clover Park Port St. Lucie, Florida. The Mets have some important players showing that they are ready and healthy to prove the haters wrong about this roster. The three players that I am going to talk about are going to be known as the "X-Factors" of this ballclub.

Starling Marte

It is no kept secret that Starling Marte is going to be such a key ingredient to what David Stearns is cooking for a playoff run in 2024. The importance of Marte was put on display in the late 2022 season where he was placed on the IL for a fractured finger. Marte, who was an all-star that year posted a .292 Batting Average and a .814 OPS in 118 games. Once he went on the shelf the team was struggling to score on a consistent basis without having Marte batting second daily. That same off-season it was announced Marte had double groin surgery and once he decided to opt out of not playing for the Dominican Republic in the 2023 World Baseball Classic you just knew something was off and sure enough it was.

Like the 2023 season as a whole, Marte's season was a major disappointment. In 86 games Marte posted a .248 Batting Average and a .625 OPS. He finally hit the IL for his Groin injury still lingering and did not return for the rest of the season. In 2024 Marte is determined as he quoted to "reintroduce himself" to the fanbase and he has shown flashes of his 2022 self. From legging out a drag bunt for a base hit and gunning down runners for trying to go from first to third in Spring Training games. If Starling Marte is healthy this lineup has one less question mark to worry about.

Francisco Alvarez

I think almost every fan would take Alvarez's rookie year if you take a look at his overall numbers. In his first full regular season Alvarez slugged 25 Home Runs with 63 RBIS while posting a .721 OPS. What impressed me most about Alvarez was his defense. All we heard about Alvarez was that his bat will have to carry him to cover his defensive woes and boy scouts were wrong. In 2023 he was ranked in the 96th percentile when it came to pitch framing and ranked in the 67th percentile with his pop time. Everyone was so impressed with him that Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer were requesting to have him behind the plate in their starts.

Even in Spring Training he was gunning out runners with Adam Ottavino on the mound which is super impressive because base runners run all over Ottavino due to his slow delivery. He is showing off his light tower power by hitting two moonshots in his past two spring training games. The only thing that Alvarez needs to work on is developing consistency with his offensive game. The story of Alvarez's season is that he would have one good month, then follow up with one bad one month. If Alvarez can find that consistency, then we found our protection for Pete Alonso.

Luis Severino

There was once a time in baseball that Yankee fans thought Luis Severino was better than 2018-2019 Jacob Degrom which in my opinion was the greatest stretch of brilliance by any athlete. Fast forward to 2024 Degrom is recovering from TJ and Severino is on a 1 year prove it deal with The Mets. With Senga going down before the season has started Severino is by far now the most important piece to the success of this team going forward. Severino's key to success this year is staying on the field and keeping this team in games by pitching quality starts 95 percent of the time he is out there. So far Severino has looked really good in spring training with his fastball topping at 98 MPH and his breaking stuff complimenting off of that.

If Severino can be at least half of what he was when he was pitching like an Ace at his peak, then I really like this top three in the rotation when Senga comes back.

If Marte and Severino can live up to what it says on the back of their baseball cards with Alvarez making strides, then I can most certainly see this team making the playoffs where anything can happen as long as you just get in.