The Mets won a series against the Yankees with a walk-off hit last night. That puts them up 2-1 in the subway series, with three more games at Yankee Stadium in September. Hold on to some hope that the Yanks will gift them two more games, because a Subway Series win will be the only title this team will contend for in 2026.
Despite the dramatic game-tying shot in the ninth and the walk-off win in the tenth, this team has shown that they do not belong in the playoff picture and in some ways do not even belong in a major league ballpark.
I am shocked when I see multiple players dropping fly balls in a three game series. This might happen in a softball beer league, but in an MLB game? Multiple times? I am embarrassed and I don't even wear the uniform.
Speaking of uniforms, I believe that uniform number 59 is soon going to be available. It doesn't matter that the Mets are paying Sean Manaea $17M this year, he does not deserve to wear it. How many times does he have to get lit up by the opposing team before David Stearns decides to DFA him? There are talented young pitchers in the development system that can learn a lot in the big leagues at no risk to team success (because this is not a successful team), so why not start working on the future.
Let's face it - the Mets have to play .600 ball just to be the last wild card team, and they have not really faced the tough teams in their schedule so far except one series with the Dodgers and one with the Cubs.
Another uniform number that should be on the auction block in July is 19. I think that Bo Bichette really epitomizes the folly of the off-season rebuild of the Mets. Bichette is a guy with a baseball name and some good numbers on the back of his baseball card. Those numbers were earned in Toronto, which is not a high pressure media environment. Those numbers looked convincing when plugged in to the front office's algorithm, but in the spotlight of New York City, Bichette has withered.
So has the absent Jorge Polanco, who delivered nothing before applying for sick leave with a boo-boo on his wrist. The guys like Alonso and Nimmo that were ditched for these guys had their ups and downs, but they both proved that they could play in the difficult environment. None of the free agent pickups that represented the "new core" of the team have shown that they could except Juan Soto.
Soto cannot carry this team on his back, and he has to be pretty displeased that he can't because his contract includes a half million dollars for an MVP award and $350k for a World Series MVP and both of those are unobtainable on a team that will probably finish the season with a .400 winning percentage.
If the Mets get a reasonable haul of prospects for the huge mistakes of this past off-season, there may be some hope in the future for this team. For now, we can hope that by September 11th the games are meaningless for the Yankees so we can have a competitive rookie-on-rookie game with a chance to win the Subway Series and hoist the booby prize.
10 comments:
I am confused how Manny and H.I.S. three-year $75 million salary works out to less than that, as your article suggests? But Spotrac says it’s three years $75 million so he’s very expensive, with virtually nothing to show for it. He is still better than Senga, who is no longer even as good as Senger.
I have a feeling that if you shipped Kodai to the Los Angeles Dodgers right now, he would start pitching just swell.
Bring up the kids. Four kids to go:
Wenninger, Thornton, Tong, and Morabito.
My suggested timetable? Bring up Jack this week, and the other three by the end of June.
1. Showcase all veterans in hopes of attracting trade suitors
2. Put Manaea back in rotation as trade bait
3. Activate Jared Young ad utility outfielder
4. Return David Peterson to the rotation
5. Play Brett Baty at 3B
6. Play Mark Vientos at 1B
7. Showcase Bo Bichette at SS
8. Play Carson Benge in RF
9. Play AJ Ewing in CF
10. No more kids until after trade deadline
They should definitely prioritize success in NY when deciding who to bring in or bring back. We’ve seen too many players who were good elsewhere not be able to handle the NY pressure. Even guys that were eventually successful like Beltran had rough starts here.
Winning at a 60% clip is possible given the large number of mediocre teams.
Who would trade for Bichette and his low 500s OPS right now? It would take a huge hot streak for him to just get to replacement level. And with numbers like this he’s not opting out of his contract. How much money would you have to eat to get a bag of balls back for him?
Trades are weird. Many baseball people.think they can reinvent players with great histories
So what happens when Lindor, Robert Jr. and Polanco come back?. Out of all the garbage players Stearns signed last year, the only one that I think that can bounce back to form is Bichette. Lets hope for a couple of good games for him and see if he relaxes and continue to hit after that.
My question is when Lindor returns, where to play Bichette.
Lindor is the team's SS
LI DUCKS
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