MIAMI — Brandon Nimmo is set for his sixth Opening Day with the Mets, but his first in which the team has been established as a credible threat within baseball.
As good as the Mets looked on paper entering last season, they still hadn’t enjoyed success on the field as a unit.
The same can’t be said now, after a 101-win regular season that put the Mets in the playoffs for the first time in six years.
“I just think last year there was still ‘Let’s see if they are the good new Mets,’ or ‘Let’s see if it’s like the same old, same old,’ ” Nimmo said. “With last year we have kind of set a precedent now of what this team is capable of doing … rather than just saying we believe in this clubhouse what we can do.”
The new season starts Thursday at loanDepot park, with Max Scherzer taking the ball against the Marlins, who are set to deploy reigning National League Cy Young award winner Sandy Alcantara.
For the Mets it was an offseason filled with the disappointment of losing to the Padres in the NL wild-card series, but also filling holes with expensive players.
The rotation was retooled, with Justin Verlander’s arrival as a free agent after Jacob deGrom departed through free agency, highlighting the makeover.
The lineup stayed close to the same, as Nimmo returned on a new contract, and Edwin Diaz was retained in the bullpen, along with Adam Ottavino, added to new free-agent addition David Robertson.
Team owner Steve Cohen laid out $375 million in payroll for this season, with another $103 million in penalties for surpassing the top tier of baseball’s competitive balance tax.
The bar has clearly been raised in Queens, but by how much?
“I wouldn’t necessarily say World Series or bust, because things have to go right,” Nimmo said. “But I do think we have to get into the playoffs to give ourselves a shot. For me, I think the playoffs are essential. Steve is not just trying to get into the playoffs, he wants to win the World Series.
“A lot of that depends on how hot the team is going into it and a lot of that cannot be controlled until you get to September. Somewhere we can improve on is obviously finishing better and having a better playoff, but you have to get there to figure it out.”
Much of the glare will be on a bullpen that lost Diaz, likely for the season, after he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee during a World Baseball Classic celebration and underwent surgery.
But the Mets will also have to show they can produce offensively, with a lineup that largely lacks home-run potential behind Pete Alonso.
Robertson and Ottavino will largely carry the burden of filling in for Diaz, while the Mets look for Francisco Lindor, Starling Marte and Eduardo Escobar to help fill the power void.
“I think we’re pretty complete in a lot of areas,” general manager Billy Eppler said. “There is length in the lineup. We’re going with two aces at the top of a rotation again, similar to last year. We’ll have a little bit of adversity in the bullpen to kind of think through … we’ll see how that situation presents itself when we’re in-game but I feel good about the optionality and depth that we have built.”
Mark Canha said the collective fabric of a team that won so many games in the regular season last year also counts for something.
“I think we love our team and we’re built for success,” Canha said. “I think we have that mentality of just playing downhill and competing. All the guys in this room love to compete and that’s what you want.”
