Reese Kaplan -- Those Who Don't Learn From History...

While it’s not quite the halfway point of the season, the fact remains that the trend in winning and losing mirrors much of the past decade for the Mets.  When the calendar hit June 19^th the team was already on the wrong side of .500 in 6 out of 10 years.  To make matters worse, the season ending record in the 9 campaigns that have completed included just 2 winning records in all that time. 

2019 is looking like one of those majority of seasons when there will be an awful lot of discount promotions during the dog days of summer to entice fans to part with their hard-earned shekels to give up 3 hours of their life to watch mediocre baseball.  Already the team is (7.5) back and almost as close to last place as they are to first.  Double the results to get a more likely ending record and you’re staring up at another useless middle-of-the-second-tier finish. 

Now many here say that New York fans don’t have the stomach for a true rebuild.  Further complicating things is the amount of money and mortgaging of the future Brodie Van Wagenen did when interviewing for the GM job.  Apparently he told the Wilpons what they wanted to hear – that they were able to contend now with just a few tweaks here and there.  Telling your boss everything is rosy when the cesspool is overflowing has a name – blowing smoke up one’s, er, hind quarters.  And a mighty wind it was when BVW convinced the Boy Wonder and his Dad that we don’t need no stinkin’ top-tier talent.  Comedian George Carlin once bragged that while he never had a ten he has had five twos…and that’s sometimes how it feels as a Mets fan.  Quantity doesn’t necessarily equal quality.

So what was different about the two winning seasons in 2015 and 2016 from the disasters before and since?  Well, think back to the great sell-off of 2017 when the Mets got rid of Curtis Granderson, Lucas Duda, Addison Reed, Neil Walker and Jay Bruce when they netted back…umm…uh…someone?  Anyone?  How could a GM actually deal away five players who made the All-Star team at one time or another and get back nobody in return who has contributed anything to the ballclub?  It’s almost unfathomable that they could do that, yet in 2018 we saw a close repeat of it.  This time it was Asdrubal Cabrera going for a TJS victim, Franklyn Kilome and Jeurys Familia gone for mostly international signing money and some warm bodies, one of whom is already out of the organization and the other struggling in AA, hitting just .239 with a whopping 2 HRs.  (That without even acknowledging the reunionitis disease which saw them bring back a clearly diminished Jeurys Familia for 3 more years and $30 million down the rathole. 

It's easy to see how 2015 and 2016 differed.  When they club was ailing they didn’t pick up guys like Chris Beck, Tommy Milone, Adam Wilk, Neil Ramirez, Wilmer Font, Aaron Altherr and Brooks Pounders.  They went out and got Kelly Johnson (twice), Juan Uribe, Tyler Clippard, Addison Reed and Yoenis Cespedes.  They added actual major league talent to the roster and made the post season each of those two years.  Maybe there’s a connection between real talent vs. castoffs from other organizations…

Mack has already gone on record that it’s time to sell.  While I agree, there are going to be precious few out there interested in the likes of Juan Lagares or Todd Frazier without paying down their overpriced salaries.  Jason Vargas is pitching so well right now that they may just pick up his 2020 option and instead the only valuable piece to dangle in trade might be pending free agent Zack Wheeler.  What makes him different than the fire sales of the past is that he’s under 30 and conceivably could be convinced by the acquiring ballclub to stick around. 

Since Wheeler is likely the only chip that could net you something in return, and I agree that a full rebuild is not what BVW sold to Dumb and Dumber, you should instead be looking to acquire other teams’ free agents to be.  In this case all it would take is…what is is called, that stuff that people pull out of their wallets when they want to obtain something of VALUE they desire???  Wait, MONEY…nevermind!  See you in October looking up along with the Marlins watching how other clubs actually try to make an effort to win.