The NL East has seen its share of surprises thus far in 2023. While Atlanta has maintained its status as the division’s class and Philadelphia has started to turn the corner, Miami has surged and the Mets have struggled.

The stars have also maintained form, as the likes of Ronald Acuña Jr. , J.T. Realmuto, and Pete Alonso have maintained form. However, the same can’t be said for the pitching, as several aces have seen declines in production.

The division boasts both Cy Young winners from 2022, Justin Verlander and Sandy Alcantara, but both have seen their numbers dip drastically. Following his outing on Friday, Alcantara’s earned run average (ERA) sits at 4.97, while Verlander has a 4.40 mark after a solid start against the Yankees.

This trend continues beyond the marquee hurlers, as Rookie of the Year finalist Spencer Strider’s ERA has increased to 4.12. Add the continued struggles of Zack Wheeler and Max Scherzer with 3.76 and 4.45 ERAs respectively, and it’s a concerning development for what’s supposed to be a division full of contenders.

With the All Star break approaching, the question is why are these aces struggling so much? Is it the results of the pitch clock? Is it just the result of several down years?

For the former, some pitchers have gone on record with personal struggles against it. Scherzer faced a situation in Spring Training where experimenting with the pitch clock failed, throwing too late to negate a double play opportunity, and he recently aired another grievance on its enforcement.

Following his warmup tosses getting cut short against the Phillies earlier this month, Scherzer said, “Why do we have to be so anal about this, to have the clock up everybody’s face, shoved in everybody’s face, and try to step out every little single second that’s going through the game?”

However, it may just be as simple as inevitable regression. Scherzer and Verlander are each over 40, Alcantara wasn’t going to throw another six complete games in a season, and Strider was bound to struggle at some point. Wheeler has also pitched at a very high level the past few years, meaning he was also bound to have a bad stretch eventually.

As a result, the struggles of aces may be due to a variety of factors. Some of it may be new rules, while it may just be the nature of a prolonged slump. However, the season is still less than half over, meaning these aces can wipe the slate clean and make the season successful despite the early struggles.