Grading the Mets' 2024 season: Players, Carlos Mendoza, and the front office

By any measure, the 2024 season was an unexpected gift for Mets fans who were bracing for the worst and seemingly getting it in April and May.

We’ll never know for sure exactly what turned the season around. The players-only meeting?

Or was it simply the right combination of players with plenty to prove and a first-year manager with instincts for the job that can’t be taught, all coming together and playing baseball with a remarkable fight that kept them from drowning early and eventually defined them over 162 games, then even more so in October?

Probably the latter.

All of which made for a final report card mostly worth framing. Here are the grades:

David Stearns

In his first year as President of Baseball Operations, Stearns lived up to his reputation for being a good evaluator capable of finding value in players without overspending, such as Sean Manaea and Luis Severino, or adding around the margins with the likes of Tyrone Taylor, Harrison Bader, and Jose Iglesias. He did much the same at the trade deadline, adding Jesse Winker, Ryne Stanek, and Phil Maton without giving up much in return. On the other hand, Huascar Brazoban was a miss, and Stearns could have done more to help the bullpen, no doubt. Big picture-wise, however, he put together a team without spending at the top of the free agent market that went farther than anybody expected.

GRADE: A

Carlos Mendoza

Right to the end, Mendoza wasn’t afraid to follow his instincts in his first year on the job. In Game 6 against the Dodgers, for example, he brought Edwin Diaz into the game in the fourth inning, willing to try anything to keep a 6-3 game within striking distance for his offense. And he followed that with Ryne Stanek, his top setup man. Who was going to close if the Mets pulled off a big comeback? Mendoza would worry about that if it happened. It didn’t, of course, but that type of thinking was symbolic of Mendoza’s feel for the game and his players, his ability to make decisions with what he was seeing on the field and not just what the analytics department might want. He wasn’t perfect: he stayed with J.D. Martinez and Phil Maton too long in October, but he also gave Francisco Alvarez a vote of confidence that may have helped him bust out of his postseason slump. All in all, as a rookie manager he established himself as the right man for the job.  

GRADE:  A

Francisco Lindor

The star shortstop had a spectacular, MVP-caliber season, though he probably will finish second for the award to Shohei Ohtani. Along the way, Lindor won over Mets fans, many of whom had held his $341 million contract against him, to the point where the crowd singing along with his “My Girl” walk-up song became a feel-good, Citi Field phenomenon.

GRADE: A+

Mark Vientos

His stunning rise to a budding superstar in 2024 became one of the great stories of the season. After struggling as a rookie with strikeouts and plate discipline, Vientos worked hard to become a more complete hitter, making more contact and chasing less, as he raised his batting average from .211 to .266 and his OPS from .620 to .836, with big-time power. And then in the postseason, he raised his game on the biggest stage, hitting .327 with 5 home runs and a .998 OPS.

GRADE: A+

Pete Alonso

It seemed he was one more bad at-bat away from finishing his career as a Met in forgettable fashion when he hit that unforgettable home run off Devin Williams to essentially win the Wild Card Series in Milwaukee. That seemed to free him up mentally, as he hit three more homers in the postseason, largely making up for a mediocre regular season and leaving the door open to potentially coming back as he hits free agency.

GRADE: B

Brandon Nimmo

It was a strange year for Nimmo, who went from being an All-Star snub who was putting up spectacular clutch numbers, to practically an automatic out in the second half, when he hit .190 with a .596 OPS. He did have some key hits in October, but wound up with his worst overall season in the big leagues -- a .224 batting average and a .727 OPS.

GRADE: C

Jose Iglesias

Was it coincidence that the Mets’ turnaround in early June began just when Iglesias showed up from the minors? Probably not, as he brought the vibe with his OMG song and also played at a high level both offensively and defensively. In 291 plate appearances, he hit .337 with an .830 OPS and delivered in the clutch, hitting a rather remarkable .375 with runners in scoring position.

GRADE: A

Jeff McNeil

After a horrendous first half, McNeil remembered how to hit again, opting for hard contact over trying to guide the ball, and the results were a reminder of how he’d won the NL batting title two years earlier. In the second half he hit .289 with a .923 OPS before breaking a bone in his wrist via a hit-by-pitch. Overall, his numbers weren’t pretty: .238 with a .692 OPS.

GRADE: C 

Francisco Alvarez

The Mets’ young catcher had a disappointing offensive season that raises questions about whether he’ll reach his highly-touted potential. A torn thumb ligament early in the season limited him to 100 games played, and after a hot start upon his return, he slumped badly in the second half, just as he did in 2023, this time hitting .187 with a .594 OPS. For the season he hit .238 with 11 home runs, down from 25 as a rookie.

GRADE: C

Tyrone Taylor

The numbers weren’t particularly impressive, yet Taylor played a big role as something of a super sub in 2024, with a knack for getting an impactful hit or making an outstanding catch in the outfield when it was needed. For the season he hit .248 with a .701 OPS, but he did rank high in defensive metrics, via MLB Statcast, and his speed was in the 90th percentile.

GRADE: B+

Jesse Winker

Winker proved to be a nice pickup at the trade deadline. His regular season numbers weren’t impressive but he had some clutch hits down the stretch and then had an impactful postseason -- particularly in the NLCS -- with five hits, five walks, a .385 batting average, and a 1.117 OPS.

GRADE: B+

Starling Marte

For a third straight season Marte was significantly limited by injuries, playing only 94 games and putting up pedestrian regular season numbers, slugging .338 with a .715 OPS while stealing only 16 bases. He did finish strong, however, with a big NLCS in which he hit .333 with four doubles and an OPS of .839.

GRADE: C

Harrison Bader

On a one-year, $10 million deal, Bader looked like the bargain of the year in the first half, when he put up solid numbers and seemed to get more big two-out hits than anybody on the team. But the bat went cold in the second half, as he hit .167 with a .513 OPS, losing playing time along the way. His defense remained outstanding, however. His range in CF was ranked in the 92nd percentile, via MLB Statcast.

GRADE: C

J.D. Martinez

Martinez got his share of big clutch hits for the Mets over the course of the season, putting up an impressive .955 OPS with runners in scoring position, but he but fell off badly in the second half, hitting only .109 in September, and by the postseason he wasn’t much of a factor.

GRADE: C

Sean Manaea

Perhaps no pitcher in baseball did more to transform himself into a dominant starter than Manaea as he lowered his arm angle to emulate Chris Sale and turned into a monster in the second half of the season. He held opposing hitters to a .185 batting average after the All-Star break and his fastball became mostly unhittable – MLB Statcast ranked his fastball run value in the 99th percentile of all pitchers. Only downer was his final start in Game 6 against the Dodgers, when he may have been gassed from a career-high innings total.

GRADE: A

David Peterson

At age 28, the left-hander established himself as an elite starter, pitching to a 2.90 ERA over 21 starts after his season was delayed by recovery from offseason hip surgery. Peterson further enhanced his value by getting the job done as a reliever in some big postseason spots, including closing out the Wild Card Series.

GRADE: A

Luis Severino

The Mets got the bargain season they hoped for from Severino when they signed him to a one-year, $13 million deal coming off his disastrous 2023 in the Bronx. He pitched to a 3.91 ERA and proved durable, throwing 182 regular season innings, his highest total since 2018. Had plenty of dominant starts but also had his share of clunkers. Was solid in the postseason.

GRADE: B

Jose Quintana

It was a season of extreme ups and downs for the 35-year old left-hander. Quintana’s ERA was as high as 5.29 in June but he was dominant in September, allowing three earned runs over his final six starts of the regular season, finishing the season with a 3.75 ERA. In the postseason he had two very good starts before struggling against the Dodgers.

GRADE: B

Tylor Megill

The right-hander helped get the Mets over the finish line with a strong September, after being called back from the minors to replace the injured Paul Blackburn. He pitched to an outstanding 2.32 ERA in six starts after his recall, lowering his season ERA from 5.17 to 4.04.

GRADE: B -

Edwin Diaz

To put Diaz’s up-and-down season into perspective, consider his ERA+ number, which is adjusted to a player’s ballpark and league statistics. League average is 100, and Diaz had a near-historic ERA+ number of 292 in his dominant season of 2022. By contrast, this season his ERA+ number was 113, or a little above league average. His meltdowns in May sent the Mets into a spiral and at one point he lost his closer’s spot, albeit only briefly, and had the sticky-stuff suspension as well. His season ERA of 3.52 was the second-highest of his career, but he did have a good postseason, allowing no runs in five of his six outings.

GRADE: C+

Ryne Stanek

The Mets got Stanek as a salary dump from the Seattle Mariners at the trade deadline, helped him fix a problem with his mechanics, and then watched him climb from non-factor in the pen to primary setup man by season’s end that belied his 6.61 ERA. He got some big outs in the postseason as well, especially Game 5 vs. LA.

GRADE: B

Phil Maton

Maton was another bargain pickup at the trade deadline from the Rays, who wanted to shed salary, and he bolstered the Mets’ bullpen nicely for a while but faded badly at the end, perhaps from overuse. Was very ineffective in the postseason, pitching to an ERA of 8.53.

GRADE: C

Reed Garrett

He was a huge early-season surprise, practically unhittable in April, but was up and down the rest of the way, sidelined at one point by injury. For the season Garrett wound up with a 3.77 ERA, then got some big outs in the first two rounds of the postseason, but was ineffective against the Dodgers.

GRADE: C+

Dedniel Nunez

Seemingly came out of nowhere to become a bullpen savior for a couple of months before being sidelined with a forearm injury late in the season. The Mets really missed Nunez in the postseason.

GRADE: A

Jose Butto

Another guy who was a savior for a depleted bullpen for a long stretch of the season after being converted from starter to reliever. Butto pitched to a 2.00 ERA in 23 appearances as a reliever during the season, but faded rather dramatically late in the season and then especially in October, perhaps from fatigue.

GRADE: B