David Stearns’ offseason makeover of the Mets roster has led to the worst record in the majors, a product of injuries and underperformance.
The team’s president of baseball operations acknowledged Tuesday that the organization would “absolutely have to look at our risk assessment on injured players.”
That’s after players with checkered injury histories — like Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. — have gotten hurt, worsening an already poor showing from the lineup.
It’s an offense that’s scored the fewest runs and will now feature a pair of rookies — Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing — in the outfield, despite little time at Triple-A.
Stearns insisted Tuesday before the team opened a homestand against the Tigers at Citi Field that they are “not close” to trading away veteran players and that they remain confident the roster is capable of righting itself.
“I do believe that,’’ Stearns said of the team salvaging the season. “But we have not shown that yet. We have the talent on the roster, and the character on the roster, to make a run. There’s a lot of season left. I’m not going to say it’s early. It’s not. We’re a quarter into the season. It’s not early anymore. But we do have enough season left to make a run and I think we have the talent to do that.”
He may be one of the few who believe that, as the Mets have been bad from the start of the season and continue to be anemic at the plate.
Whether it’s injuries to newcomers like Robert and Polanco or established stars Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto or simply a lack of production from Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, Brett Baty and more recently, Francisco Alvarez, this team has been miserable almost since Opening Day.
“I think it’s a combination of some injuries and there also have been players who have been healthy who haven’t performed to their accustomed levels,’’ Stearns said.
“We’ve underachieved, there’s no question. Collectively, as an organization, we have to figure out a way to get better and I think we will.”
Perhaps the arrival of Ewing will help, as he joins Benge in the outfield with Robert out indefinitely.
“We would not have made this decision if we didn’t feel A.J. was ready to make the jump,’’ Stearns said.
But a roster that has players prone to losing time to injury doesn’t help.
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“We know we’re taking a level of risk when we bring players in with injury histories,’’ Stearns said. “We’re feeling that risk right now and it hasn’t helped that a number of our players have gotten hurt at the exact same time. It’s not something that we necessarily anticipated and it’s something we need to look at.”
Stearns reiterated he has no plans to make a change at manager, saying of Carlos Mendoza, “I’ve been very clear and consistent [that Mendoza] does a really good job.”
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It hasn’t been enough, with the season in danger of slipping away.
“We recognize the first six weeks of the season haven’t been close to good enough,’’ Stearns said. “We also believe we have the talent on this team to turn this around.”
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