The Mets and their huge payroll entered Friday night with a .500 record and in the midst of an ugly stretch in which they had lost three straight and nine of their last 11 games.
It’s hardly what was anticipated when Steve Cohen broke the bank to improve a team that won 101 games last season.
Despite the mediocre results, general manager Billy Eppler still feels good about his team.
“I believe in this roster, I believe in this team and the players that are here,” Eppler said before the Mets faced the Rockies at Citi Field. “There’s too much track record, too much these guys have accomplished [and] too much know-how.”
So far, though, there’s been too much losing, with issues in the lineup, as well as the rotation.
“That’s the part of our club that probably hasn’t put up the numbers we expected,” Eppler said.
And he also pointed to the amount of injuries the pitching staff has endured and hopes that is behind them.
“There’s reason for optimism,” Eppler said. “We’ve got Max [Scherzer] and Justin [Verlander] back. We’re looking at Carlos [Carrasco] soon.”
Scherzer, though, did not pitch well in his first start back after his ban for using a sticky substance, but Verlander was solid in his season debut after returning from a strained teres major.
“I’m confident in Max,” Eppler said of the 38-year-old that saw his velocity dip in his last outing.
Eppler attributed Scherzer’s rocky start to the fact he hasn’t pitched on a consistent schedule.
“I’ve seen really irregular work,” Eppler said of Scherzer’s schedule, which has included dips due to health, as well as the 10-game suspension.
“When you graph that out, it looks turbulent,” Eppler said.
The dip in fastball velocity Scherzer referenced could be a worry, but Eppler said that he’s gotten up to 97.1 mph.
“It’s there,’’ Eppler said of Scherzer’s repertoire. “It’s just a matter of consistency and getting to the trajectory of pitching every five or six days. I’m not worried about Max.”
The lineup has also looked shaky, having already been shut out six times.
“The club is really built on the length of the lineup,” Eppler said. “I have the utmost confidence it’s gonna break out.”
Eppler pointed to the fact that the issues on both sides have been more prevalent in the past two weeks after a strong start to the season.
“There are times in a year you overperform or underperform in a 10-to-15 game stretch,” Eppler said. “I’m not succumbing to recency bias.”
He pointed out teams usually wait until Memorial Day to figure out what kind of team they have and then the next third of the season deciding how to fix it before the trade deadline.
“There’s an ebb and flow to a season,” Eppler said. “These guys will get to the point of their true talent level. We have no doubts about that. We’ve got all the resources here to make it happen [and] a great coaching staff.”
And a team that won the second-most games in franchise history just last year.
“It’s a club with a lot of experience,” Eppler said of the group. “It’s a club with a lot of know-how. So I’m looking forward to seeing them and watching these guys go.”