PHOENIX — Nearly a quarter of the way into the season, the identity of the Mets — the team with all those dynamic, young, hard-throwing pitchers — has been distorted beyond recognition.
Those pitchers are now either hurt or, too often, helpless. And as a result, the Mets, who going into this season seemed to have a shot at having the best, and deepest, rotation in baseball, instead had the worst E.R.A. in the major leagues — an unsightly 5.13 — going into Tuesday’s games.
It was not supposed to be like this.
In 2015, the year the Mets shook off six straight losing seasons and made it all the way to the World Series, they possessed an average offense but a pitching staff with the fourth-best E.