The New York Mets are a much more talented team than they have shown this year. We all struggle to understand why, and there is no obvious reason or it would have been corrected long ago. The most confusing aspect of this year’s failure has been the elusiveness of the symptoms. One day it is the hitting; the next day it is the defense; then it is the inability of the starting pitcher to go deep into a ballgame; then it is the bullpen.
What is clear here is that the team production is not greater than the sum of its parts. In fact, it appears to be less. There are several individuals who have compiled some impressive statistics:
• Pete Alonso has 37 HR and 123 RBI.
• Juan Soto has 42 HR, 36 stolen bases, and a .931 OPS.
• Brandon Nimmo has 25 HR and 91 RBI.
• Francisco Lindor has 29 HR and 31 SB, just shy of being the second on the team to compile a 30-30 season.
• Edwin Diaz has 27 saves, a 1.73 ERA, and a 13.86 K/9 rate.
• The Mets have hit 218 home runs, which ranks fifth in MLB.
Yet here the team stands, one game from dropping the wild card and going home and playing like they have completely lost focus. It is like someone putting a bunch of high quality ingredients into a blender but never hitting the “on” switch. So where is the switch and how can they throw it before time runs out?
Sorry to say that there is no literal switch. There is a missing ingredient that is the catalyst to make everything work together. For lack of a better word that ingredient is spirit. It is that intangible bond that causes one good event to multiply into many and prohibits one negative event from bringing the team down.
Where does that spirit come from? The right mix of player personalities. In 1986 it was Kid Carter and Keith Hernandez driving the team to win. In 1969 it was Tom Seaver accepting nothing less than excellence. In 2024 it was the “OMG!” mojo emanating from a veteran journeyman making the most of another chance.
This year it is not there. We have lots of businesslike players who go about their duties unfazed by yesterday’s events. That is a good trait for an individual ballplayer, but lacking emotion as a team denies the adrenaline that fuels comeback wins and heroic game-saving plays. The “grinding every day” approach may even sap the emotion from the team. This year’s little post-hit celebration – rolling the arms and looking at the dugout/bullpen is lackluster and emotionless. The players look like they are doing it because they have to.
It is difficult to identify how this happened, but there are clues. In the off-season, the front office made a decision to deny an extension to Jose Iglesias despite a season where he hit .337 and played stellar defense. Theoretically that was to give youth the opportunity in a crowded infield. Unfortunately the combination of Vientos, Baty, and Acuna does not bring the energy of a single Candelita. Another factor may be the lost season of Jesse Winker who only hit .243 in 2024 but brought plenty of fire and plenty of fun to the dugout. Who does that now? There is no fire. The September bench-clearing incident with the Marlins had the heat of a square dance. Pete doesn’t even break bats over his knee anymore.
It is too late to inject the necessary energy into this year’s team. They still may reach the playoffs on talent alone, but it will be a short run. During the off-season, the front office will have to determine how to re-ignite this team.
Is it a new manager? This franchise has been there and tried that multiple times without success. It just resets the clock to zero and makes the journey to a championship longer.
A few player additions that have the right clubhouse presence? Think of 2015 when the Mets brought in Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson. They were not high-end free agent acquisitions, just the right guys in the clubhouse to motivate the team. This is probably a more realistic solution, but choosing the right guys is much harder than you think. There are no metrics for choosing this type of enhancement to a team.
There is a lot of hard work to do in the offseason to turn this around.
I think the problem is Manaea, Montas, Canning, Senga and Megill. They just missed WAY TOO MANY INNINGS. The team groaned for a while, and now has moved to collapse. Those guys collectively came up 600-700 innings short of expectation. And, aside from Canning, pitched poorly.
ReplyDeleteMorning Paul
ReplyDeleteThe fact still remains... this is NOT a playoff team. It's a team hanging on for it's dear life, praying that other teams lose.
Regarding Jonah Tong, Tom and I went back and forth on this all season. He wanted him, at least, in Syracuse, but frankly, in Queens after the trade deadline. I stuck by my guns. Let him work on his secondaries while mixing with his fastball in AA Binghamton
I'm not sure Tong was overmatched last night. I think he quixkly learned that his fastball was not going to set up his other pitches very well.
This was a perfect example of a kid trying to suceed at an advanced level. Obviously, he is no Paul Skenes.
The Mets have runout of starters
I don't understand the scouting and all the publications that has Tong as a top 3/5 pitching prospect, I like Tong and still believe he can but when your rated so high it should be because it should translate to the Majors.
DeleteHe has 2 pitches, and I (with very poor scouting eyes) don't see a dominate pitch yet.
Man how i wanted Crochet this off season.
The pressure on Tong could not have been greater. I was out, and did not see it. Tong absolutely should have been in Syracuse a month earlier, to speed up his adaptation. The average AA team would probably hit .100-.120 in the majors. A whole different animal.
ReplyDeleteBut he had 2 (very good) starts in AAA. What if he had had 8 starts in AAA, rather than two? I blame this all on Manaea and Senga. Since mid-June, they have been more useless than teats on a bull. It is too much to ask a kid with 2 AAA starts directly into a faltering pennant race and say, hey kid, we did not prepare you right, but save our arses.
No disagreement that those two front-end starters have disappointed. But if they pitched well, would this team be contending for the NL East? Or would they still be 0-70 when trailing after 8 innings? It is definitely more than just those two.
ReplyDeleteAs for Tong, he is learning the hard way that at this elite level, just small variations in your stuff can lead to rough outings. He'll figure it out. It is sad that he has to learn this under such immense pressure.
Congratulations to the 2025 Eastern League Champions the Binghamton Rumble Ponies!!!
ReplyDeleteI sent Matt kudos
DeleteThree best Mets pitchers recently? McLean, Diaz, HELSLEY.
ReplyDeleteI predicted that
Deleteboth Helsley and Rogers are great relievers and I would do everything in my power to resign them
DeleteMack,
ReplyDeleteI agree. We traded for both hopefully to resign them. We gave up several prospects and to see them walk to me would be a poor decision by our scouting department.
I really don’t think the Mets gave up anyone that will come back at them someday
DeleteI thought Iglesias was the our 2nd MVP last year after Lindy and I remember talking to Mack about that last off season and find it interesting that it's really not talked about in the booth much at all. It just seems like everyone's on auto pilot with the same post game answers about we have to do better well I guess so but the old baseball adage about pitching and defense still holds and we don't have it. David has alot to do this winter starting with Pete and I just don't know how you replace 120 something RBI just for starters so good luck Mr. Sterns.
ReplyDeleteAren't the people in the booth paid by the team?
DeleteThere’s nothing about this offense that can’t be solved next year with a full season of grownup (and healthy) Alvy and Baty, Soto hitting better than .180 with RISP for four months, a reasonably productive CF (Benge?) and a little speed on the bench that isn’t a hole in the lineup if you play them. The problem with this team has been the pitching, which has been terrible since mid-June. Watching every early 3-0 lead disappear by the 5th inning, and knowing that almost everyone they bring in from the pen is a coin flip will go a long way towards sapping the energy of the team.
ReplyDeleteThe other problem is that Mendy is a terrible, terrible game manager. But I’m pretty sure he’ll be back. Oh, and they need. GM.
Benge will not be ready until, earliest July
DeleteExpect Taylor and McNeil to hold that fort down beginning OD
Agreed, Mack. And I think that with a full year of the good Baty and Alvy, and Soto being a little more clutch in the first half than this year’s first half, I think those two are fine to hold the fort until Benge arrives. I think that Williams may start the year in Queens or be ready soon to take some 2B/LF starts to let Nimmo and McNeil sit or DH more often, which should also help.
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