Paul Articulates - The right way

The vision that Steve Cohen had for the New York Mets when he acquired the team was to build an organization capable of sustained excellence.

He set out to put together a plan that would bring player development and analytics to the next level and to combine the best of two worlds – player acquisition and player development – to create a pipeline of quality players that would not just win “one”, but to be in position to win every season.

The plan was put into place and executed.  State of the art equipment was put into place not only in the Mets’ training home of St. Lucie, but also in the other facilities around the minor league development system.  Development staff were hired with a key criterion being their expertise in using analytics and digital measurement technology to enhance player development.

For a while, this approach seemed to be making great progress.  The 2025 Mets came charging out of the spring, compiling an MLB-best 45-24 record by the middle of June.  The minors franchises were also excelling, with three of the four teams reaching the league championship semifinals and two of them winning it all.

Unfortunately, it all came crashing down in the second half of the 2025 MLB season as the big club lost their mojo and went on a painfully long decline that left them just out of the playoff picture by season end.  The front office decided that the team did not have what it took to win and blew everything up.  Everything.

Now, in 2026 all the minor league clubs are failing, the major league club has one of the worst records in MLB, and no one seems to be able to identify what broke.  We are just about at the trade deadline, and the Mets are one of only three teams in the NL that are guaranteed sellers.

There are as many theories on why this happened as there are sports media channels, so I am not going to try to convince you of the real root cause, though I am sure that by introducing too much change, there was an unintended dynamic that disabled the good changes from being effective.

My intent here is to discuss the path back to the original plan, the way to get to sustainable excellence.  

The weekend series with the Dodgers reminded me of what it takes.  The Dodgers are a team that boasts the most formidable lineup in baseball and a rotation that never wavers despite having just as many injury problems as other teams in the league.  Certainly, the ability to spend has allowed them to acquire many of the premier names in baseball right now.  But that is not why they are sustained winners.  It is the team-wide buy-in to an approach that prioritizes the team over the individual.  It is Freddy Freeman hitting line drive base hits over the infield instead of trying to club everything over the right field fence.  It is Mookie Betts playing short even though he could win another gold glove in right.  It is bat-to-ball hitting that puts pressure on the opponent’s defense.  It is the stuff that is drilled into players during spring training so they remember the fundamentals that puts this team into a position to win every game.  The level of talent on the Dodgers just increases the probability that they get from “positioned to win” to “secured the win” by the end of the game.

The Mets have enough talent on their roster right now to have similar success with the same approach that the Dodgers have taken – but the evidence is clear that they are not.  

How many times do you see a batter pop up, strike out, or hit into a DP with runners in scoring position?  Each player tries to do too much and ends up doing too little.  Pitchers feast on batters that are trying to get an extra base hit on every pitch.  Savvy batters prey on pitchers that are trying too hard to execute the perfect pitch, waiting them out until the count is in their favor, fouling off tough pitches and waiting for the eventual mistake.

I think that the team has tried to go too fast.  They sacrificed the fundamentals of baseball to focus on over-the-top biomechanical wizardry to be the best right away.  And once it was not working, that awful sense of desperation to salvage a failing season set in which only accelerated the decline.

It is time to get back to basics.  Focus on defense and being prepared for what the other team is going to do.  Utilize situational hitting.  Take advantage of the speed and athleticism of their upcoming young players.  Work on hitting the ball before driving the ball.  Above all, execute flawlessly.

This team has a tremendous opportunity to build around youth like Benge, Ewing, Scott, and McLean with more behind them. They must take advantage of that opportunity by ensuring that the players are living the example of playing fundamental baseball the right way.  With the young talent they may add at the trade deadline, this team can build up quickly to a winner – if they do it the right way.