Dwight Gooden: Mets still need a true No. 1 starter

The Mets may have had as charmed an offseason as fans could have hoped for, but that hardly means the team is complete. While their lineup figures to be among the best in baseball, there’s probably still one area to address for them to deliver on owner Steve Cohen’s goal of bringing home their first championship since 1986.

“Obviously, there are question marks there,” Dwight Gooden said Friday, speaking of the team’s rotation, which took some hits recently with injuries to Sean Manaea and the newly acquired Frankie Montas.

“This isn’t a knock on anybody, just my opinion, but I still think we need a No. 1 guy. I think to compete, you have to have a No. 1 guy because what happens is that the lineup gets you through the season, but once you get to the postseason, you’re facing the other team’s best pitchers.”

Gooden, who is otherwise very optimistic about the season, was speaking at the opening of Mets House at Union Square, a team store pop-up that stocks unique merchandise and memorabilia, sells no-fee game tickets and boasts a swing analyzer that compares your swing path to those of various Mets.

The pop-up, which also will host various events, is open for at least three months and potentially more. Fans can visit Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Back to the rotation setbacks: Montas, who signed in the offseason for two years and $34 million, suffered a lat strain in mid-February that is expected to shut him down for six to eight weeks, in addition to whatever extended spring training rehab assignment he’ll need in order to prepare for the season.

Manaea went down with an oblique strain, though his prognosis is better. President of baseball operations David Stearns said Thursday that he expects the lefty to return in mid-to-late April.

That said, after Kodai Senga missed almost all of last season to injury and with no guarantee that he can replicate his 2023 dominance, the Mets likely are missing the prototypical No. 1 starter who can anchor a rotation, even when fully healthy.

Gooden also had good news about the rotation, by the way: There’s one experiment he foresees going very well.

“I’ll tell you who’s going to be a sleeper in the rotation .  .  . [Clay Holmes], he’s a big, strong guy,” said Gooden, who watched the former-Yankees-closer-turned-Mets-starter’s first spring training start in Port St. Lucie. “It’s hard, really hard to go from a closer to a starter, and a middle [relief] guy to a starter, but he’s a big guy, and strong, and now he’s going to have to go five, six innings. But he’s done it before. It’s been a while. I look at what [Seth] Lugo did and comparing [Lugo] to him, I think he’s going to be all right.”

After experiencing last season’s run to the NLCS, a year that began with moderately low expectations, Gooden also is excited to see the full Juan Soto Effect.

“I like the team chemistry,” he said. “They were having a lot of fun and enjoying it. Obviously, with Soto coming in, it takes the pressure off of a lot of the guys. All the attention is going to be on him. I’m expecting big things out of all of them.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.