Reese Kaplan -- An Embarrassing But Accurate Question to Ask

A question asked recently in the comments here on an article I wrote Monday regarding the hiring brick wall really resonated with me.  Reader Gary Seagren asked a profound question, "Why does it always seem that we never get 'our man' and will that ever end?"

Wow, that inquiry really hits the nail on the head.  It called to mind that period of irrelevancy when the Mets were mired in a string of unsuccessful seasons in which top talent steered clear of Shea Stadium for the manner in which the club operated and their seeming unwillingness to extend competitive contract terms that would be favorable to options from other ballclubs.

For a refresher course, it was during the off-season after the 2004 Mets campaign in which the club went an unimpressive 71-91, finishing 25 games back, only ahead of the then Montreal Expos.  The starting lineup included regulars like Jason Phillips, Kazuo Matsui and Richard Hidalgo.  Mike Piazza had been shifted to 1st base towards the tail end of his career and his power output was down to (for him) a meager 20 HRs.  

At that time the Mets made a concerted effort to return to relevancy and did so mostly by the free agent route.  Red Sox star pitcher Pedro Martinez received a four-year deal worth $53 million, but that was the stepping stone that eventually led to the prize of Carlos Beltran who inked a then-record 7-year contract for $119 million.  The end result of these moves was a jump to merely 7 games back at the season's end and a winning record of 83-79.  

This chapter of Mets trivia definitely came to mind when I thought about the bold moves necessary once again to get people not only to regard the Mets with interest, but also anticipation of possibly winning ballgames.  Right now they're in danger of reverting to the Dallas Green era when they were regularly the fodder for late night comedians' jokes about incompetency and the creative ways they found to lose.  

Obviously there are issues to address to make the club sit on the positive list of future employment for folks who earn their living from baseball.  The farm system is a mess.  The training facilities and treatments are obviously wholly inadequate.  The love affair with one dimensional ballplayers means the roster is saddled with an inability to field the ball, run bases nor execute Little League-worthy fundamentals.  

Granted, between a new POBO, a new GM, a new manager, new coaches and several new players, the team that takes Citifield for Steve Cohen in 2022 promises to be far different than the one that accelerated into the bottom echelon of the standings during his own rookie year as team owner.  They often say when things are at their worst there is no way to go but up.  Unfortunately, we've seen far worse from the Mets in the past.  The hope here is that the courage, the planning and the dollars invested will bring the right people to the organization and answer Gary Seagren's question positively.