Paul Articulates – Consistent Inconsistency

As all of us suffering Mets fans know, it has been a troubling season of inconsistency.  The team struggled through a horrendous June where they lost 19 games, with a mind-boggling 13 of those games including a blown lead.  

You have seen it – when the pitching is on, the bats are lifeless.  When the offense is scoring, the pitching and/or defense falls apart.  It is both mystifying and frustrating at the same time.  There are many writers that are happy to offer up reasons that these failures keep coming, but it is just grasping at straws.  I find it humorous in the SNY post-game show when Gary Apple inevitably asks Todd Ziele to explain the inexplicable.  Todd does his best to stammer through something plausible, but probably wants to wring Gary’s neck for asking him that question every night.

One prevalent theory is that when they finally listen to Tom Brennan and move the walls in, construction crews will find that Jimmy Rollins buried a voodoo doll underneath the Citi Field turf that is causing this mayhem.

This has been going on since mid-to-late April, so there is a certain consistency to the erratic performance if that doesn’t sound like an oxymoron.  There has been a streak of losing series, but not a pronounced losing streak.  When it looks like they hit rock bottom by losing a couple games to an inferior team, they come back and put on a one day show like a playoff team with brilliant plays, good pitching, and solid hitting.

To make this sound even stranger, look at the Mets’ minor league system.  The Syracuse Mets (AAA) are 34-44.  The Binghamton Rumble Ponies (AA) are 37-37.  The Brooklyn Cyclones (A+) are 33-40.  The St. Lucie Mets (A) are 26-46.  This has to be the definition of mediocrity as the entire system is at or below .500.  But before you overreact and call for heads to roll, consider this:  

It is well known that the Wilpon-era Mets sacrificed many prospects for quick-hit deadline trades for former stars.  You know the ones – everything from Jason Bay to Javy Baez to (yes, it’s that time of the year) Bobby Bonilla.  It is also known that the scouting, international scouting, and analytics departments were below average.  

Steve Cohen came in and vowed to change all that, and began making sweeping changes in player development, analytics, and leadership throughout.  That is a lot of change all at once, and bodes very well for the future.  But when there is a significant amount of change (anywhere), it takes quite a while to settle out.  

There is confusion, re-alignment, course correction, and inevitably success if the strategy was sound and the organization remains committed to the direction.  We are still in the confusion and re-alignment phase.  In 2021 the Mets couldn’t hit anything – mostly due to over-saturation of analytics.  In 2022 Eric Chavez fixed that problem and the players over performed.  In 2023 the pendulum has swung backwards as all the reactions to actions have not yet settled out.  

In the minor league system, there are some good prospects that have entered recently and they have very fortunately been protected in the last couple of trade deadline cycles so they can mature within the Mets’ system and provide value to the team rather than some other franchise.  

There are some very serious prospects that are making their way through and although there is still much to clear out in the current system, the player quality is getting better.  We just need more of them to accumulate to start tilting the balance throughout the minors.  There may be some good prospect additions at this year’s trade deadline as it appears the major league team has careened into seller territory with the June swoon.

The moral of this story is that I believe the Mets organization is struggling through the underdamped oscillations of a major change.  It will take some time to settle out but if you grit your teeth and ride this one out, there may be a lot to cheer for in the future.