Poll: Which position group for the Mets carries the most risk?

You need to have risk/upside on your roster. If all you have are relatively sure things, then the only way to go is down for your team, as you know injuries are going to happen. If you enter the year with little to no risk/upside and you project a 90-win team – what happens when six SP miss at least a month of the season?

My view is that the Mets have risk/upside all over the place. At a minimum, there’s risk at 1B, 2B, LF, CF and SP. Can Jorge Polanco repeat 2025? Can Marcus Semien prove that 2025 was a fluke? Can Jeff McNeil shake off the thoracic outlet surgery and be a productive starter? Is Carson Benge ready for prime time and can Tyrone Taylor rebound from a poor 2025 if Benge isn’t ready? And the SP need their own paragraph.

Can you count on Kodai Senga to pitch a full season? Is Sean Manaea healthy and capable of repeating 2024? Did David Peterson just hit a wall after reaching his previous MLB high in innings or is he just another Tylor Megill, someone who’s just going to be inconsistent? Is Nolan McLean the real deal or was 2025 just a small-sample fluke? Is Clay Holmes ready to take the next step as a starter or is 2025 as good as it’ll get?

To me, the starters are where the biggest risk is, if for no other reason than there are legitimate questions about all five. And that’s not even counting if/when they go to a six-man rotation to accommodate Senga.

Probably should have mentioned the bullpen. The Mets are counting on A.J. Minter, Luke Walker and Devin Williams to have better/healthier years than they did last season. So, to keep the choices in the following poll to a reasonable amount, let’s agree that the starters are the riskiest and then group some of the others together.

Finally, if you’ll consider mentioning in the comments whether the group you pick as the riskiest is an acceptable risk or one that in your opinion needs an upgrade, that would be great.