At The Quarter Pole

It's a good thing that New York sports fans have been distracted by the Knicks playoff run, the Rangers & Islanders, and the NFL Draft because as we enter the quarter point in the major league baseball season, things look bleak in New York. Both the Yankees and the Mets entered the season with high hopes, even placing in the top 5 in the majors for betting favorites. This week we will hit the 1/4 mark in the year and things could not seem worse than they are right now.

The Yankees spent much of last week in dead last place. The optimist will say they are still over .500 and they are dealing with some key injuries. This is all true. Judge, Stanton, Bader, Rodon, Severino and a handful of relievers have all missed chunks of the year. The pessimist will counter that by pointing out that the return of many of these players are still in question, and their effectiveness is an even bigger doubt. Aaron Judge's return is seemingly the only sure thing. Stanton will miss months, and how far buried will this team be by then? Rodon has never worn a Yankee jersey during the regular season, and has had setbacks since he signed. Severino has never been healthy and their bullpen pieces aren't returning this year.

The Mets are in a similar boat. They are above .500, but barely. They, like their cross town counterparts, will blame injuries. But, like the Yankees, those injuries come with more questions than answers. Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander returned last week from IL stints which should make any Mets fan encouraged, but these are both still 40+ year old players, with recent injury histories. Mad Max is still mad about the pitch count and he hasn't looked right all year. The bullpen hasn't been bad but Edwin Diaz isn't returning and now their top holds man is out with an injury. All of this still doesn't help an offense that has scuffled along the way, and are getting no reinforcements back anytime soon. Things got so bad that the Mets lost a double header to the lowly Tigers last week.

The Yankees and Mets still have plenty of time to turn this all around. New York is getting healthy, but will it be enough? Let's hope for better health because this could turn into a downward spiral for New York baseball faster than we ever imagined.