After back-to-back trips to the postseason in 2015 and 2016, the New York Mets will be heading home following the final game of the 2017 regular season this Sunday. The Mets were eliminated from postseason contention earlier this month.

What went wrong for the Mets this season? Injuries, more than anything. They have all those impressive power arms, plus solid depth options, and yet, take a look at how things shook out:

  1. Jacob deGrom (201 1/3 innings in 2017): Stayed healthy all season!
  2. Robert Gsellman (113 2/3 innings): Missed seven weeks with a hamstring injury.
  3. Seth Lugo (97 1/3 innings): Missed two and a half months total with elbow and shoulder problems.
  4. Matt Harvey (88 2/3 innings): Missed two and a half months with a shoulder injury.
  5. Zack Wheeler (86 1/3 innings): Missed close to three months with a stress reaction in his arm.
  6. Steven Matz (66 2/3 innings): Missed close to four months with ongoing elbow problems.
  7. Noah Syndergaard (28 1/3 innings): Missed five months with a torn lat muscle.

Those seven starters were supposed to lead the Mets back to the postseason this year. Instead, they combined for a 4.85 ERA and +4.6 WAR in 682 2/3 innings. Remove deGrom and it's a 5.40 ERA with +0.1 WAR in 481 1/3 innings. Yikes. Rafael Montero, who had fallen so out of favor with the organization the last two years that he was in danger of being dropped from the 40-man roster, is third on the team in innings pitched this season. He has a 5.30 ERA in 110 1/3 innings.

Another reason the Mets failed to contend this season? They brought in no help last offseason. None whatsoever. They added literally zero pieces to the MLB roster. Sure, they added depth players on minor-league deals and all that, but the big-league roster? No new faces. The Mets stuck with their 2016 roster and hoped for the best.

Obviously it did not work out. The pitching staff was ravaged by injury. Yoenis Cespedes missed time with multiple hamstring injuries. Jeurys Familia had a blood clot in his arm. David Wright did not play a single game. Lucas Duda and Neil Walker missed time before being traded away. And because that wasn't bad enough, All-Star Michael Conforto blew out his shoulder taking a swing late in the season, and required surgery that could shelve him for the start of next season.

Clearly, the Mets can not simply stand pat and expect the same roster to contend next year. And they won't do that, because players like Duda, Walker, Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, and Addison Reed were traded away that the deadline. This is the 2018 Mets roster as this stand right now:

  • Catcher: Travis d'Arnaud
  • First base: Dominic Smith
  • Second base: TBD
  • Shortstop: Amed Rosario
  • Third base: TBD
  • Left field: Cespedes
  • Center field: TBD
  • Right field: TBD
  • Rotation: deGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey, TBD, TBD
  • Bullpen: Familia, A.J. Ramos, Jerry Blevins, TBD, TBD, TBD, TBD

There are some internal candidates for those many TBD spots. The Mets could pick up Asdrubal Cabrera's $8.5 million club option and play him at second or third base. Wilmer Flores is an option there as well. Maybe Wright gets healthy, though I don't think the Mets should count on that. Juan Lagares and Brandon Nimmo will figure into the outfield picture in some capacity, especially while Conforto is out. Montero, Wheeler, Lugo, and Gsellman are all rotation candidates. Paul Sewald, Hansel Robles, Jacob Rhame, Kevin McGowan, and Jamie Callahan are among the internal bullpen options.

Clearly though, there is a lot of work to be done to turn this roster into a contender. The Mets have an obvious need for another middle-of-the-order bat, and that was true even before Conforto's injury. A veterans innings guy -- what Bartolo Colon was from 2014-16, basically -- to stabilize the rotation would help as well. There are more questions than answers with this roster right now, and that's even before you factor in potential growing pains for Rosario and Smith. They are both very talented, but development is not linear, and there could be bumps along the way.

MLB: New York Mets at New York Yankees
The Mets hope Dominic Smith and Amed Rosario develop into cornerstone players in 2018. USATSI

With all that in mind, there are two big picture questions the Mets have to answer right now, before they begin making decisions that will shape the 2018 roster.

1. How much can they spend this offseason?

On Opening Day, the Mets ranked 12th among the 30 teams in payroll. That's better than in previous years -- they were in the bottom third of the league in payroll for a while -- but still not what you'd expect from a team in the game's largest market. Bruce, Walker, Duda, Reed, and Granderson all made a nice chunk of change this year, and now that money is freed up. The Mets should have a good amount to spend this winter. Whether they spend it is another matter. The Wilpons have run a tight ship for a long time now and it is not unreasonable to be skeptical of their willingness to pump all that money back into the team.

2. How much longer will this core be together?

Harvey will be a free agent following the 2018 season. deGrom is under control through 2020 and both Conforto and Syndergaard are under control through 2021, so they're not going anywhere. Cespedes is signed through 2020, though he will be 32 in October, so it is fair to wonder how many peak years he has remaining. Generally speaking, the Mets don't have to worry about their core players leaving anytime soon. Harvey will be a free agent next year and that's it. deGrom, Syndergaard, Conforto, and Cespedes (and Smith and Rosario) are all tied to the Mets for at least three more years. There is urgency to win with this group, though it's not as if a total tear down and rebuild is necessary.

The Mets tried to win with their 2016 roster in 2017 and failed miserably. The 2018 roster will look very different, all the trades and openings ensure it, but different enough to contend? There is a lot of production to replace and a lot of open spots to address. It all starts with the pitching staff though. The much ballyhooed quintet of Harvey, deGrom, Syndergaard, Wheeler, and Matz has never once made one turn through the rotation together. Not once. The rotation remains the backbone of this team, and without those guys healthy and effective, there's little the Mets could do to overcome it.