Mack – Your First Look At The 2018 New York Mets

We have to first ‘go back’ to July of 2017, where this whole process began.

July 2017 –

Sandy Alderson is asked to resign as General Manager. He refuses to do so, so the Mets fire him. He then refuses to leave his office and barricades himself into the home bullpen of CitiField. Local police and fireman are called to the scene where he is eventually removed and arrested.

Phil Jackson is hired to replace Alderson as General Manager. His first action as General Manager is to deny Charles Oakley’s access to Mets home games. When reached for comment, Oakley has a perplexed look on his face, stating ‘I’m a Yankees fan’. 

Special Assistant to the General Manager, J.P. Ricciardi resigns in protest and it is decided internally that Senior Vice President, Baseball Operations & 

Assistant General Manager John Ricco will oversee the trading period this month and will oversee the daily operations until Jackson gets up to speed.

David Wright takes offense to both the above actions and announces that he will retire and accept whatever the Mets and their insurance company can work out as a payback. Jackson offers Wright a future position with the team, which he abruptly declines.

Lucas Duda is traded to the New York Yankees for OF prospect Dustin Fowler. Fowler is assigned to AAA-Las Vegas.

Astrubel Cabrera and Addison Reed are traded to the Boston Red Sox for 3B prospect Rafael Devers. Devers is assigned to AAA-Las Vegas

Gavin Cecchini, Travis d’Arnaud, and Matt Reynolds

Fernando Sales, Jose Reyes, and Neil Walker are designated for assignment.

Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce are traded to the LA Dodgers for 2B prospect Willie Calhoun. Calhoun is assigned to AAA-Las Vegas.

Tim Tebow hits .220 in July for St. Lucie, with two home runs and eight runs batted in.

August 2017 –

           Tebow is promoted to AA-Binghamton.

Jackson holds a press conference, slamming his own organization for keeping him out of the loop during the trading processes. He says he is immediately putting Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, and Yoenes Cespedes on the trading market.

           Jackson is fired as General Manager and is replaced with Geraldo Rivera.                He promises to remain out of the limelight, which would be a first in his                    career.

The Mets begin the process of building the new Mets. They promote 1B Dominic Smith, 2B Willie Calhoun, SS Amed Rosario, 3B Rafael Devers, C Kevin Plawecki, and OF Dustin Fowler. All become starters for the remainder of the season.

As for the pitching, emphasis is placed on their health in 2018. Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler never pitch another inning in 2017. 

Matt Harvey is designated for assignment after being caught by The New York Post’s Page Six photographers of him dancing half nude on the top of a table in a Brazilian disco in The Hamptons. A trade is worked out with the Yankees for the best they could get, P Giovanny Gallegos, who is assigned to AAA-Las Vegas. 

The rest of the Mets starters (deGrom, Steven Matz, Jacob Lugo, Rafael Montero, Robert Gsellman) will have strict pitch limitations for the remainder of the year, regardless of score. Gallegos will be the emergency SP6 on call from Vegas.

Tebow hits .220 in August for Binghamton, with two home runs and eight runs batted in.

September –

            Tebow is promoted to AAA-Las Vegas.

            Rivera is fired as General Manager of the Mets. Jay Horwitz is named interim GM for the remainder of the season. He names Adam Rubin as the interim Press Secretary.

            The Mets quietly start fighting out the Philadelphia Phillies for the top pick in the 2018 draft.

            The Mets fire manager Terry Collins, pitching coach Dan Warthen. Bench coach Dick Scott is named interim manager and Las Vegas pitching coach, Frank Viola, is promoted to the Mets pitching coach position.

            Rosters eventually are expanded and key secondary prospects are invited to Queens to get a taste of their future. They include pitchers Marcos Molina, P.J. Conlon, and Corey Oswalt, plus catcher Tomas Nido.

            Tebow is promoted from Binghamton directly to Queens. The Mets brass designate a 5,000 seat portion of their upper deck to be called ‘The Tebow Tribe’. The section is developed to create a healthy competition with the T7L section in left field; however, it turns out to be a basic street fight before the games even start. Tebow and Brandon Nimmo are brought in to quiet things down, especially with the more religious fan base of The Tebow Tribe. It doesn’t work and eventually, both sections are shut down. The negative effect of this, especially the loss of The T7L fans, is devastating. The home attendance drops to less than 10,000 a game as the team passes the Phillies in amount of loses in the season.

            The season ends. For some reason, the Mets win the last three games of the season and wind up with the #2 pick in the 2018 draft. Horwitz is asked to retire and Rubin takes over the Press Secretary on a permanent basis.

            Tebow hits .220 for the Mets in September, with two home runs and eight runs batted in.