Reese Kaplan -- Sandy Alderson Era -- 2017 in Review

After two straight playoff appearances (despite not progressing as far as they would have liked), expectations were high for the 2017 season.  Considering they had been one and done in the 2016 post-season, a reasonable person would have concluded that there was certainly room to improve. 

In an almost unprecedented move the Mets entered the 2017 season without adding a single major league caliber player to the roster.  If you’d won the World Series in 4 straight games, MAYBE you could justify this stagnation and lethargy.  To stand pat and go to battle with the same lackluster squad was lazy if not irresponsible. 

Now I can’t put this inertia on Sandy Alderson who was forced to leave the club prior to the Winter Meetings to deal with his cancer diagnosis.  This one is squarely on the heads of the Wilpons who didn’t give anyone the authority to proceed with necessary changes in his absence.

Consequently, when the season unraveled due to a spate of injuries and poor performances which showed the lack of depth, no one should have been surprised.  Given the poor leadership in the dugout, it also came as no surprise that it was time for Terry Collins finally to go. 

Of course, the love for the familiar continued with new deals for Jerry Blevins, Yoenis Cespedes and Bartolo Colon.  The “additions” to the roster included minor league deals to guys who got promoted to the majors, including Adam Wilk, Tommy Milone and Neil Ramirez.  Ugh. 

By the trading deadline even the clueless Mets front office knew they were going nowhere and they gave Sandy Alderson permission to sell off several of the departing free agents.  In a tunnel vision myopia, every deal executed during this purge brought back relief pitchers.  Departing were Curtis Granderson, Lucas Duda, Jay Bruce, Neil Walker and Addison Reed.  None of the players received in return have yet made much of an impact, though Drew Smith formerly of the Tampa organization did show some flashes late in 2018. 

During the latter part of the year the Mets went scrap heap picking again and obtained Nori Aoki who inexplicably started nearly every game in September when instead the team could have looked at others who might have been a part of the future.  Similarly Gavin Cecchini was rendered into an afterthought.   

Late in the year former Mets beat writer Marc Carig then of Newsday published a scathing condemnation of Terry Collins, including the tidbits that both Jeff Wilpon and Sandy Alderson were wholly in favor of his termination but that the elder Wilpon saved his friend from that indignity.  The issues at hand cited included poor bullpen management, lack of communication skills, a disdain for younger ballplayers and continual tactical blunders.  At one point Jerry Blevins led all of baseball with 9 consecutive days of use and was joined in that burnout pace by Addison Reed, Hansel Robles, Fernando Salas and Jeurys Familia all of whom were used at times more than five consecutive days. 

Carig cited an anonymous Met who said, “He has always been difficult to communicate with.  It would be a surprise if he said ‘hey’ to you when you passed each other in the hallway if your name wasn’t [Matt] Harvey or [Yoenis] Cespedes. It’s always been those couple things along with some of the in-game decisions he makes.”

2017 brought about the revival of the LOLmets hashtag as various embarrassing developments took place during the season.  Matt Harvey famously partied too hard and was unable to come to the ballpark as a result.  Kevin Plawecki's locker was photographed with a sex toy in it.  Noah Syndergaard refused a club requested MRI and went down shortly thereafter with a lat injury.  Even Mr. Met was caught in a less than family friendly gesture.  

Unlike the David Wright (and to a lesser extent, Jose Reyes) sendoff celebrations, Terry Collins' departure was a tearful press conference but there was no video tribute nor standing ovation for a job, um, done.  The year ended with a 70-92 record.