Reese Kaplan -- Writing the Premature End of the 2022 Season

So it's now the second week of September and there's a confluence of fans as well as media mavens already writing the epithet on the 2022 baseball season for the demise of the New York Mets.  After occupying first place for the vast majority of the season, the team humiliated itself by allowing the Atlanta Braves to catch them during the very first week of September.  So how is this fiasco going to be written?

Well, there is the failure-to-perform route of storytelling.  After all, the trio of James McCann, Eduardo Escobar and the multitude of Designated Hitters have all contributed precious little during the quest to maintain the first place position in the standings.  Now, to be fair, McCann has suffered multiple injuries, including rushing back from a fracture in his hand.  

Escobar has been mostly healthy this year but his power and batting average are not what commanded a multi-year contract in excess of $10 million per season.  He's currently rallied to be hitting .230 and as of September 9th with 80% of the season already gone he's sporting a total of 15 HRs and 50 RBIs.  Add 20% to both numbers and that's 18 HRs and 60 RBIs for the season, a steep drop off from what he did for the Diamondbacks prior to his arrival in Queens.  

The DH position started off so well in late July when Daniel Vogelbach and Darin Ruf replaced the multitude of would-be DHs who were not getting it done.  Lately, however, both the left handed and right handed side of this would-be offensive weapon has been virtually non-existent.  Since August 9th Darin Ruf is hitting .125 with no home runs and 4 RBIs.  Vogelbach had been winning teammates and fans with his start, but during the same period he's only hitting .169 with 2 HRs and 9 RBIs.  What's particularly distressing about Vogelbach is that his OBP is way down (under .300) and he's struck out 21 times in 65 ABs which is nearly 1/3 of the time.  

Another way to write the history of the collapse is about injuries.  You can't dispute the challenges the Mets have had in this regard.  Along with long term unable-to-perform players like Tylor Megill, Trevor May, Brett Baty and others, now the Mets are facing Max Scherzer hitting the IL who is one of the pair of Cy Young Award winning aces, and the absolute top notch free agent arrvial Starling Marte bewilderingly designated as "day-to-day" with a non-displaced fracture of his finger after taking a HBP earlier this week. So without factoring in any of the arrivals necessitated by other physical maladies, you're talking about one half of the starting rotation killers along with their most polished bat in the outfield, that's an awful lot to take as you're hanging on by a fraction of a game in the ice-thin margin between themselves and the Braves.

Of course, another spin on this yarn would be to place the blame on General Manager Billy Eppler who came to New York after a checkered tenure in Anaheim and while facing the trading deadline did not bring in flashy starting players, but instead went after people who could not hold 162-game jobs with their former teams.  While the economy of doing so in terms of salaries paid out and (for the most part) minor personnel sacrifices can help justify some of these actions, the fact is that the results simply are not what were expected when the deals were made.  No one is looking to place blame on Steve Cohen who has done a great job helping fans forget the Wilpons, nor Sandy Alderson whose Wilpon years deserve to be forgotten as well.  However, they do need a common enemy and Eppler seems to be the most likely recipient for people who embrace this line of thinking.

There are surely many other ways to interpret the Mets during this most difficult period.  Once again, breathe deeply and remember they are in first place.  Placing Scherzer on the IL makes sense to prepare him for the post season.  The Marte approach is bizarre, at best.  There have been offensive outputs recently from both James McCann and Eduardo Escobar to suggest they might help shoulder some of the late season burden.  The only unresolved issue appears to be the DH role which could use Robinson Cano's leftover PEDs to help juice up the games of whomever Buck Showalter trots out there on a daily basis.  It surely won't be easy, but it's still possible for the Mets to win the NL East.