2024 New York Mets

2024 New York Mets / Franchise: New York Mets / BR Team Page

Record: , Finished in NL Eastern Division (2024 NL)

Managed by Carlos Mendoza

Coaches: Danny Barnes, Jeremy Barnes, Eric Chavez, John Gibbons, Jeremy Hefner, Antoan Richardson, Jose Rosado, Mike Sarbaugh and Glenn Sherlock

Ballpark: Citi Field

History, Comments, Contributions

The 2024 New York Mets were coming into the season after having been a major disappointment in 2023, when a huge salary mass did not translate into a winning record, their fourth-place finish convincing veteran manager Buck Showalter that it was time to enjoy retirement. In his place came rookie manager Carlos Mendoza, who had never played or managed in the big leagues, but still had plenty of experience as the long-time bench coach for the rival New York Yankees under manager Aaron Boone.

Doubtless, Mendoza would have liked a smoother introduction to his new job, as in addition to a number of injuries during spring training, the most important to All-Star starting pitcher Kodai Senga, the Mets had not really been very active in adding talent, so that they fielded an underwhelming - but still very expensive - team on Opening Day. Even before spring training started, the Mets had lost their top prospect, IF Ronny Mauricio, for the season due to a torn ACL suffered in winter league ball.

Opening Day that was rained out and pushed back to March 29th, at which point the visiting Milwaukee Brewers started a three-game sweep. Next to hit town were the Detroit Tigers, and they handed the Mets two more losses, both in extra innings before Mendoza could finally savor his maiden win on April 4th, in the second game of a doubleheader necessitated by another rainout. That game also went to the limit, as the Mets were trailing, 1-0, entering the bottom of the 9th, before Pete Alonso tied the score with a lead-off solo homer off Alex Faedo and Tyrone Taylor hit a walk-off single to score Brett Baty three batters later. One small consolation during that rough stretch was that the team's patched-together starting rotation had held up well, with new acquisitions Sean Manaea and Adrian Houser both making excellent starts even if they were not rewarded with wins, and reliever Edwin Díaz showing no ill effects from the knee injury that had cost him the entire previous season, even if he was still looking for a first save opportunity. In their first win, it was unheralded Jose Butto, making just his 9th career start, who had got things started with six strong innings.

Further Reading

2024 MLB season by team