Reese Kaplan -- What Must the Mets Do for 2022?

For most of the 2021 season the Mets fans have teetered between ecstasy for being in first place for the majority of the season and despair for the many mistakes the team has made that have had them chronically underachieving.  Obviously injuries were a major part of the second part of that spectrum.  So have slumps.  So have some clearly horrific substitutes brought in for short term solution to problems.

Going forward the Mets need to make some significant changes to plan to build on what was working and to obviate whatever wasn’t.  Some of these decisions are going to be made for them as player contracts expire and free agency promises greater opportunity and bigger paychecks than would be offered in New York.  Some are the result of long term contractual obligations that make underperforming or non-performing players impossible to move.  

Then finally, there is the question of the entire payroll Steve Cohen is willing to absorb in order to address the needs necessary to win games.  Will he be looking at going north of the salary limit and pay the corresponding penalties?  Will he try to live close to the limit and reserve the splurge for mid-season acquisitions as they become available?  Will he try to blow it all up and build a long term solution with youngsters from the minors?  (Given the paucity of pitching and lowest-level hitting, that latter option is likely not happening unless the goal is to trade current major leaguers for AA and AAA options from other clubs).  

Somewhat lost in the fan dissatisfaction and roster held together with duct tape is the question of the kind of job Luis Rojas has done with the sad assortment of spare parts he’s had to embrace as regulars became unavailable to him.  No one really expected, for example, Billy McKinney to be an adequate replacement for Michael Conforto (assuming Conforto was having a typical year).  Repeat that same analogy all across the pitching staff, including many who have fallen under the surgeon’s knife and others who have hit the unemployment line after failing to get it done for the Mets.  To be fair to Rojas, it’s hard to make a banana split from blackened rot in the dumpster.  

Still, watching Rojas make decisions calls to mind the issue of how much control he really has.  Now the 2020 season in post-Beltran haste gave Rojas a job he wasn’t prepared to handle given his lack of time to work through a proper planning exercise.  Throw in the players who opted out early like Marcus Stroman and others who opted out for spite like Yoenis Cespedes, and again Rojas was left with very few dependable pieces to shuffle around for positive results.

This season he loses the excuse of planning and timing as he had all of the 2020/2021 off-season to figure out what he was going to do and who was going to do it.  Now I am not even going to give Rojas 1% of the blame for the many injuries that have beset the club.  He is not responsible for player ailments unless you could prove he was overusing or misusing the athletes under his command.  

However, how much of the throw-a-dart lineup decisions were made by Rojas alone, how much was dictated from the front office and how much was the result of being told to pay whoever earns the biggest paycheck?  A classic example right now would be the aforementioned Michael Conforto who brings home over $12 million for playing well below the level of a replacement player, yet there he is, nearly night-after-night, occupying his usual spot in right field.  By contrast, Brandon Drury has been swinging a lava-hot bat yet isn’t necessarily guaranteed a starting spot in the lineup.  Is that a Rojas blunder or is it a front office command?

When a team receives a new owner or a new general manager it often means the end of the line for the manager-d’jour.  These executives want to prove they know more about how to win games than their predecessors did.  

Interestingly, the Mets did not go down that road.  It may be that Steven Cohen wanted to instill a modicum of stability.  It could be that the hasty departure of Jared Porter that made yet another important change to the stability of the organization an unwise one.  

So the question facing the Mets right now is what to do with Luis Rojas for the 2022 season?  A lot of it depends on how they finish the season.  If the team can tapdance its way into the post-season, then a case can be made that Rojas was something of a miracle worker hitting October baseball with a very motley crew of ballplayers.  On the other hand, you could take the approach of Brodie Van Wagenen who sent fellow sexual harasser Mickey Callaway on his way out the door after improving from a 2018 record of 77-85 to a significantly better 86-76 in 2019.  This method would be to fire Rojas for not getting further and bringing in your own honcho.  

So what is the consensus about the job Rojas has done?  Was he asked to build a winning team with balsa wood and Elmer’s glue or was he given the right players and just couldn’t get out of them what they were expected to do?