Why Mets are ‘very confident’ they will persevere from this disastrous start: ‘Part of our story’

“You never want to start off the way we did,” second baseman Marcus Semien added. “But the fact of the matter is it happened. When I say work ethic and talent coming together is a lethal combination, it’s always going to be the truth of this league.”

Talent aside, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns pointed out Friday that the roster he assembled is overflowing with experience. The majority of these players have been through “significant adversity” in their careers, handling “tremendous pressure” in different markets or postseason stages.

“I don’t get the sense that anyone’s head is spinning here,” Stearns said. “I think guys are coming to the ballpark, getting their work in and expecting to win. And I think we will.”

What should be concerning for Stearns and the front office, however, is that regardless of how seasoned his team is, the Mets have consistently played bad baseball through much of these first three-plus weeks of the season. It’s early, but a nine-game losing streak isn’t a fluke.

“We’re not cohesive,” reliever Luke Weaver said. “We’re not [playing well] on every side of the ball at once. We’re not producing one successful complete game and then building off of that.”

Take Friday’s loss to Chicago. Finally, the Mets’ reeling offense showed signs of life, racking up 14 hits. They put up four runs, which is more than they’ve had in all but one game during this nine-game skid. But starter Kodai Senga dug the Mets into an insurmountable hole early on. The deficit grew when the Mets’ bullpen took over.

“Days like today, where the team is hitting well scoring a lot of runs, but the starting pitcher doesn’t do their job,” Senga said through an interpreter. “Or their starting pitcher is doing really well and we can’t get a couple runs across. We’re close. We’re not putting it all together.”

In some cases, these struggles have been inexplicable. The Mets have had bad batted-ball luck and uncharacteristic starts to the year from key players. Losing Juan Soto to the injured list was a debilitating blow. Bo Bichette and Francisco Lindor aren’t going to hover around the Mendoza line all year. One grand slam against the Dodgers shouldn’t overshadow Devin Williams’ encouraging start in the back of the bullpen.

At the same time, there are far more glaring red flags when examining the way this team has bumbled out of the gates. Down the road, if those trends continue, it’ll reflect poorly on the decisions Stearns and his team made this past offseason when he revamped this roster and broke up this club’s core.

The Mets are relying on Peterson, Senga and Sean Manaea, who haven’t pitched well. Semien doesn’t look like a veteran on the brink of a career resurgence at the plate. Breaking camp with phenom Carson Benge starting in the outfield hasn’t panned out yet. Brett Baty, to use his own words on Friday, has been “terrible.” The Mets have pressed and made detrimental swing decisions in big spots as well.

“I need to step up,” Bichette said. “There’s other guys that do too.”

Some in the Mets clubhouse see this as a rut where one rally, one clutch pitching performance or one play defensively can be the catalyst to get this team back on track and rolling. Others are focused on consistency and those elusive comprehensive team efforts as the key to what will snap this streak.

Either way, the Mets see too much talent when they look around their clubhouse to expect this downward spiral to continue. They want this to be a productive early-season experience, the type of adversity that fosters a type of identity that benefits them down the road.

After all, every team is destined to endure low points over the course of a marathon season. For the Mets, that just happened much earlier than anyone could’ve anticipated.

“This has an opportunity to be part of our story,” Stearns said, “to help us find our identity, come through this and understand we have the ability to do that. Based on the guys we have and the quality of work and the quality of people, I believe we will be able to do that.”

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