Good Morning, Mets' fans!
I can't speak for the rest of you, but does it seem like Winter has flown by this year? I blinked my eyes a couple of times and the run up to Christmas, through the New Year and the end of football season snuck past me. Now, we are past Valentine's Day and Spring Training is in full effect, which is a good thing.
Time flies, for sure.
Anyway, while perusing various Mets' related articles over the past week, I came across an interview with former Met pitcher and current (overpaid) Phillie Zack Wheeler. As a quick disclaimer, I have never been a fan of his so I have to try to measure my words carefully whenever I write an article about him.
No, he never did anything to me personally but he was the most frustrating pitcher to watch. Tons of untapped potential that was muddied by his myriad of injuries and inconsistency. One inning he looked like an ace and the next inning he couldn't find the strike zone. I mean, who didn't enjoy his 4 inning starts that covered 110 pitches and included a small village of baserunners?
So, Zack has moved on as well all know but he felt the need to throw some shade on the Mets and our GM this past week. In short, he was asked a question about his free agency and how he ended up with the Phillies. Apparently, Zack fielded offers from interested suitors (his right to do so), to include the huge offer from the Phillies. He shopped the offer back to the Mets and the team decided to pass (their right to do so).
Zack's response to this series of events was as follows;
“It was basically just crickets when I did"........but Wheeler wasn’t surprised
“because it’s them........it’s how they roll.”
Seriously, Zack?
The same organization that traded Carlos Beltran (and cash) to the Giants to obtain your services in 2011 because they saw potential in you. The organization that paid you $10,279,875 dollars to pitch for them between 2013 and 2019. Oh and you only made 126 starts over that 7 year period, which works out to 18 starts per year.
Must be nice to get paid whether you work or not.
Oh, but you were injured (a lot) and it is why you didn't contribute more. True and that isn't anyone's fault, per se. BUT, you didn't pitch AT ALL during the 2015 and 2016 seasons and you still made over a million dollars in that time period! The Mets subsequently took care of you and rehabbed your injuries so that you could get healthy and pitch (just enough) to eventually get your big payday.
There are quite a few descriptors running through my head right now, but in an effort to stay mostly in bounds I will simply label Zack as disrespectful and unappreciative, so he should fit right in with the rest of Philadelphia, right?
Perhaps the best part of this story was Brodie's public response to Zack's interview, which was classic, in my opinion.
"Our Health and Performance Department and our coaches all contributed and helped him parlay 2 good half seasons over the last 5 yrs into $118M. So I’m proud of what our group was able to help him accomplish and I’m happy he was rewarded for it".
Rough translation "go count your money and shut your pie hole".
There may have been more going on behind the scenes that we will never know, but it certainly seems like Zack's vitriol is misplaced and I am glad that our GM stepped up and called him out for it.
Will we miss Zack? Maybe a little bit.
He was a pretty good #3 starter in my mind, but certainly not worth the ace level contact the Phillies gave him. It will be interesting and entertaining to watch how he reacts to THAT fan base when he hits a rough patch or invariably gets injured (again). The odds of one or both of those things taking place are pretty high.
The Mets will be OK with the six starters we have lined up for 2020 and I would prefer to see Brodie give the money saved by letting Zack walk, to someone like Noah and/or Conforto instead.
Good luck, Zack.......you are going to need it.
Zack would have been better off saying nothing - it's a business, and like you said, he had very solid stretches but also lousy stretches and a long disappearance with TJS. The Mets decided to pass. It happens.
ReplyDeleteWheeler was a decent but not great pitcher who deserves about half of what he's earning. BVW did the right thing in taking the draft pick.
ReplyDeleteI think the most arrogant I ever was was just after I signed my biggest contract.
ReplyDeleteMan.
ReplyDeleteStill the hate for Zach. Let me put it to you all this way.
If I recall correctly, while he was here he was not a gifted nor overly willing or cooperative interview. He spoke briefly and his interviews (and questions fielded) never really lasted for very long. He came across as a somewhat reserved and quiet Southern man. Zach was simply here to play baseball, not be a television personality and then later on be a president. I think this is a fair statement to make.
Zach Wheeler got paid based upon his skill set, just like everyone else in MLB. At times, his stats were better than any starter on this team. He got hurt. Zach did not (by any means) rip his own elbow out with his hands. He probably got hurt when Terry was over-pitching pretty much everyone on the staff, if I recall correctly. I could be wrong. But unintended injuries dot happen.
So tell me these things.
Did Zach Wheeler determine his own contracts?
Was he paid (at the time) unfairly too much by the Mets?
Did Zach intentionally injure his own elbow thus requiring TJ surgery?
So what's the problem here then?
Yes, maybe he didn't have to say what he did about the "crickets". It's an old Southern expression just like, "You can hope in one hand and crap in the other, and see which one fills up faster." I use this one because it is only my favorite.
But is any Mets fan here, wanting to debate that his statement regarding "the way it is here" is actually so very far way off from the truth? Not really. After all, MLB is another sport that has got to be run like a business in order to survive. And that type climate does transcend down to each and every team, especially in this era of sports.
It's a business.
And when players leave a team that they liked playing on, one that they really did not want to ever leave most likely here, they react in an upset and maybe slightly unfair manner when questioned about it.
I think that is what we read most recently from Zach Wheeler in this most recent reporter's questioning.
And nothing more.
I really do wish Zachary Wheeler the very best with the Phillies. He now does have one more thing to be pitching for.
On da' pitching maestro.
ReplyDeleteStarting Pitching
The 2020 NY Mets have six really good ones. Each starter here now with a sizable amount of big league experience, and either MLB notoriety or accolades. This ain't your grandfather's Mets' starting rotation with Craig Swan and crew. These are six MLB tested arms with three CY Young Awards, and a ton of professionalism.
So what am I saying here now?
I am saying this. The MLB season is long with the road to postseason paved with sore arms. We have seen this here, just like every other MLB team in seasons past. So why not now take advantage of this situation and go to the much discussed six-man rotation. Allow these six gifted starters an extra down day so that come playoff season, there are still in fact six healthy arms.
I see merit here with this. It will all be about what the 2020 Mets rotation themselves think on this and can they adjust to it.
The borrowed roster spot reduction (for this) could maybe come from the utility/bench role number of players. How many times do you see all five get into one game?