Entering play on Sunday, the New York Mets (11-22) held the worst record in the big leagues. Several factors have contributed to the team’s disappointing start to the season, but injuries have played a key role in keeping the lineup from developing and maintaining any consistency. New York’s offense ranks dead last in runs scored and OPS.

Juan Soto played in just eight games before he landed on the IL with a calf strain. He’d miss around three weeks and pick up right where he left off upon his return. In 77 PA, he’s hitting a robust .338/.442/.538 (178 OPS+; the only Mets regular with an OPS+ above 96).

Francisco Lindor is just as vital to the Mets’ lineup, but he’s had a poor start to the season. Lindor’s hitting just .226/.314/.355 (91 OPS+) in 105 PA. He landed on the IL with a calf strain of his own on April 22. The typically sure-handed defender had already made several notable “mental mistakes” in the field on the young season.

Jorge Polanco was signed in the offseason to a two-year, $40 million deal to replace Pete Alonso at first base. Polanco played just two games in the field before “discomfort in his Achilles” limited him to DH duties. A bruised wrist would land him on the IL on April 14. He’s hit .178/.246/.286 (51 OPS+) in 61 PA.

Ronny Mauricio, long viewed as one of the club’s top prospects (Baseball America listed Mauricio in their overall Top 100 each year from 2019-2024), was called up from Triple-A and thrust into Lindor’s place at shortstop. He, too, struggled to a 7-for-32 start before fracturing his left thumb during Saturday’s game (a 4-3 loss to the Angels in 10 innings). Mauricio is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.

ESPN’s Jorge Castillo chronicled several of the Mets’ “lowest moments” so far, in an effort to identify just where everything went wrong. The internal concerns have grown so intense, in fact, that Castillo reports “the Mets have already reached out to teams, searching for offensive help with a willingness to trade one of their starting pitchers not named Nolan McLean, Freddy Peralta, or Clay Holmes”¹.

Among the several items Castillo highlights, the ongoing clubhouse concerns remain central. Notably, an apparent rift between Soto and Lindor has been speculated about ever since Soto joined the club last spring.

Rumblings during the offseason didn’t help the situation much, when several players were forced to address suggestions that Brandon Nimmo had been traded to Texas because of a “rift” between him and Lindor. Both players adamantly denied there were ever any concerns.

Soto and Lindor made similar remarks when spring training began this season, but things are different this season. Their lockers are now separated across the Mets’ clubhouse, as Castillo notes. Often, the duo “warmly welcome their teammates and all but ignore each other”. Lindor no longer follows Soto on social media. Soto isolated himself from the team while on the IL, admitting to reporters upon his return that he hadn’t kept in touch with any of his teammates.

Ultimately, something will need to improve between the two stars locked into long-term contracts. Lindor is signed through 2031 at $32.5 million a year ($32,477,821). Soto is locked up through 2039, earning $61.8M each of the next four years (incl. 2026) and $46M a year after (provided he doesn’t opt-out of the remaining 10 years of his deal). Both players have full no-trade clauses in their deals.

Washington Nationals catchers have combined to hit .172/.218/.259 through the season’s first 35 games. The group is dead last in the majors in OPS (.477) and HR (1).

Keibert Ruiz was the de facto starter behind the plate entering the season, if only in part thanks to the eight-year contract extension the club gave him ahead of the 2023 season. Including the $5.375M he’s due this season, the Nationals still owe Ruiz nearly $32M. In 21 games (62 PA), the 27-year-old has hit just .186/.210/.305 (45 OPS+) with five extra-base hits (4 2B, 1 HR).

Ruiz has caught 488 games since being acquired by Washington at the 2021 trade deadline from the Dodgers. Just four players have reached 500-plus games behind the plate since the club started play in D.C. in 2005: Brian Schneider (757), Darrin Fletcher (643), Mike Fitzgerald (633), and Wilson Ramos (578).

Drew Milas won the backup job behind Ruiz during spring training. In 24 games (61 PA), the 28-year-old has hit .148/.220/.185 (18 OPS+) with 2 2B.

In December, the Nationals acquired Harry Ford (and minor league RHP Isaac Lyon) from the Mariners for left-hander Jose A. Ferrer. MLB Pipeline has ranked Ford on their Top 100 list ahead of each of the last five seasons (incl. at No. 71 this year), but the 23-year-old is off to a slow start at Triple-A, hitting .173/.277/.210 in 94 PA with 3 2B. He’s the only other catcher on Washington’s 40-man roster, but there’s little in his production that suggests he should be in the Nats’ lineup daily just yet.

29-year-old Riley Adams, who was outrighted off the 40-man in January, has fared better at Triple-A (.216/.326/.378 in 43 PA with 2 HR) in a part-time role.

A lack of offensive production behind the plate has been a constant throughout the Nationals’ organizational history. Nats catchers, as a group, have been outproduced in terms of fWAR by every other MLB team aside from the Rockies and Marlins since 2005. Statcast’s Fielding Run Value (a metric that measures a player’s total defensive contribution in runs above or below an average player) ranks the group dead last since 2016 at -102.

Ford was thought to be a solution behind the plate in Washington, and still may be, but it doesn’t appear the team will see a significant change anytime soon.