Mike's Mets - Game Changer

 By Mike Steffanos

Apologies for not posting for a while. I'm going through a difficult time personally. I had to endure another back surgery on December 16 — my fourth since September 2020. It's been a lot to deal with. It's been hard to maintain optimism to get past these problems after many setbacks. I have to admit that I was down in the dumps for a while.

Much happened during the time I was dealing with my personal issues. Since I last posted in mid-November, much has changed with the Mets. The Mets have hired a new GM and followed that by making quite a splash in the free-agent market. It's remarkable how quickly the perception surrounding the club changed. We're no longer subjected to endless takes on how nobody wants to work or play for the Mets.

Fans of the New York Mets are a diverse group. There isn't much short of a World Series victory that will make every fan dance with joy. Still, it's fair to say that a large percentage of Mets fans are much, much happier with their team than they were back in the dark days of October and early November.

Billy Eppler wasn't the executive of my dreams for the Mets, but he was a solid choice and seems comfortable in the spotlight of New York media. Someone qualified to handle the job needed to be brought into the fold. I'm not a Sandy Alderson hater, but I didn't want to see Sandy making the critical baseball decisions any longer. Eppler didn't cover himself in glory while running the show for the Angels, but he's free from the heavy hand of Arte Moreno, and we can all hope that he learned from what went wrong in Anaheim.

There are rumors that David Stearns wants the job once he's fulfilled his contractual obligations with the Milwaukee Brewers. If that comes to pass, Stearns will be elevated above Eppler next offseason. While that would be a terrific outcome, put me down as skeptical of that playing out. A lot can change in a year. 

With a new GM in place, the Mets were able to quickly pivot into the free-agent market. Everyone in the game knew that things would come to a crashing halt on December 1 when the agreement between MLB and the union expired. With limited time, the Mets acted quickly to make a splash with some big signings. In a blinding flurry of activity, they signed OFs Starling Marte and Mark Canha, along with INF Eduardo Escobar. They followed that up by inking Max Scherzer to a 3-year deal. None of those signings are without risk, but the Mets roster was suddenly much stronger than it looked a couple of weeks earlier.

With his willingness to open the coffers and spend lavishly on talent, owner Steve Cohen also quickly changed the narrative of his club being just a punchline for the amusement of the rest of the baseball world. I can't say whether it was always Cohen's intention to spend big this offseason. He might have acted differently if the Mets managed to lure one of their top executive choices into the fold, or this may have been the plan all along. Only Steve Cohen and his closest confidants know the answer to that.

What's undeniable is that the Mets pre-lockout spending spree served to accomplish much more than improve the Mets' chances for 2022. It dramatically reversed the almost non-stop negative coverage of the club from the disappointing end of the season through the hiring of Billy Eppler. Don't get me wrong. The Mets still have a lot of work to do if they hope to build an organization that other clubs will admire and try to emulate. Still, reversing the constant negative coverage was an important step.

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