NL East Preview

We’re just gonna get right to it.

Mets
Well. The time is now. The day is here. It’s Opening Day yet again, and the Mets have direction. They’re trying to win this season, while preserving financial assets for the future. At the same time, they’re not skimping on payroll, and are making a legitimate run at the title in 2024. For the first time in as long as I can remember, they’re an actual organization. That should strike fear in the rest of the National League. As far as how this season will go: that will depend on the quality of starting pitchers seemingly poised for bouncebacks.

Luis Severino and Sean Manaea did not have seasons reflective of where they wanted to be in 2023. Severino disappointed by a much wider margin, but Manaea fell short of what he (and the Giants) had hoped when they agreed to a 1 year, $10 million contract before 2023: almost assuredly, they hoped he could bounce back as a starter. As time would tell, he was better suited for the bullpen.

Manaea, however, is expected to be a starter as a Met, surely agreeable for him, and an enviable outcome for the Mets. The Mets are asking him to reclaim his form as a starter, under the promise of $28 million over the next two seasons. They, assuredly, have plans to bring him fully back to form. The same could be said for Severino, if you just replaced the “$28 million over the next two seasons” with “$13 million over the next season.”

So it goes for the 2024 Mets: if everyone is *just* as good as they need to be, we will go to the playoffs, and possibly even win the World Series. You talk about a big “if.”

Braves
Let’s not even pretend to care, beyond this: if they don’t win it all this season, what the fuck are we doing? Just get it over with already (discounting the 2021 title, led by Jorge Soler. It’s like the Mets winning it all, led by Michael Cuddyer in 2015. It would count, but it would feel incredibly stupid).

Phillies
Gonna hit homers. A lot of homers. Gonna get some good stuff from Wheeler and Aaronola. Will they do anything else? Time will tell!

Marlins
Made the playoffs last year. Let’s just remember that while we watch what unfolds this year.

Nationals
Won the World Series in 2019. Let’s just remember that while we watch what unfolds over the next decade.

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