Nolan McLean remains lone bright spot as Mets spiral in power rankings

TL;DR

The New York Mets are struggling early in the season, having lost a series to the Arizona Diamondbacks and being swept by the Athletics. Nolan McLean is highlighted as the only positive aspect amidst the team's poor performance in power rankings.

Nolan McLean remains lone bright spot as Mets spiral in power rankings originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The New York Mets were one of the busiest teams over the winter break. They went out and made a handful of trades and signings that were supposed to put the team in a better spot this season.

However, they have yet to get much going, just a few weeks into the new season.

Last week, the club definitely struggled. They lost their series to the Arizona Diamondbacks and then were swept by the Athletics, being outscored 16-6, with those six runs coming in Saturday's game.

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Nolan McLean remains lone bright spot as Mets spiral in power rankings

Last week, Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter was high on the Mets. He had them ranked fourth across MLB, but after what he saw this past week, he is singing a different tune.

He has the Mets now ranked 22nd, which is quite the fall. They dropped 18 spots, but there is still some good to take away from the bad.

"If there's a positive takeaway, it was another strong start from rookie Nolan McLean, who has a 2.70 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 20 strikeouts in 16.2 innings over his first three starts."

Pitching has not been too big a problem for the Mets; it's the offense. The pitching staff holds together a combined 3,60 ERA, which is the eighth-best, but the offense ranks 20th in terms of runs scored.

The offense needs to get it going and do it quickly. It's tough to win games when you can't push runs across the board, no matter how well the pitching staff is doing. Quite frankly, they are wasting some good starts, which is frustrating for the staff.

If the club's bats can't match the pitching staff soon, this could be another long season for the fanbase in the Big Apple, where they fail to make the postseason once again.