Mets confident, but thoughts of last year's demise still fresh
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Edwin Diaz, speaking in his second language, has this way of expressing himself that seems cocky if you don’t know better. He knew he would dominate, he likes to say after saves. He “will keep striking out everybody” this season, he said Tuesday. It might sound like or read as arrogance, but it’s not. It is genuine and, sure, blunt. But it's just who he is.
That is the needed context for his characterization of the Mets’ expectations for the Mets in 2023.
“Our expectation,” he said, “is to win the championship.”
Diaz said in his straightforward way what other Mets have said and felt lately: They are facing great expectations internally and externally. Steve Cohen’s stated goal of winning a World Series within 3-5 years of buying the team is down to 1-3 years. A title is very much the goal, in a way that is more real this season than the cliché longshot dreams of spring trainings past.
The Mets won 101 games in 2022 but ultimately had nothing to show for it — no division title, no playoff series victories, no banners worth hanging. Now they get another shot.
“Yes, we are a very talented team. Yes, there’s going to be a target on our back and all that,” Brandon Nimmo said, noting that he plans to play into November. “But we have to focus on ourselves and keep ourselves accountable until we finish the very last game of the season.”
Added Adam Ottavino, who re-signed as a free agent in December: “I haven’t been a part of any winning. I’ve gotten close a few times. That’s what I have left in my career . . . That’s what I wanted to do by coming back here, because I knew we had a realistic chance of it.”
And manager Buck Showalter: “That’s what’s great about the spring. Everybody is thinking best-case scenario.”
OK, fine, every team thinks they have a shot. But few teams have the kind of roster — and none have the payroll — of these Mets. Their approximately $373 million collective salary is by far the highest in baseball history.
The initial images of the Mets trying to fulfill that goal are coming this week at their sun-splashed spring-training facility. Ahead of the first official workout for pitchers and catchers on Wednesday, aces Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer showed up for work at the same time Tuesday morning. Diaz showed off his bleached-blond hair, a ritual for the Puerto Rico WBC team. Francisco Alvarez participated in catcher defense drills.
Scherzer fist-pumped to punctuate a routine catch session. Verlander, donning Mets garb on his first day at camp, threw a bullpen session to new catcher Omar Narvaez under the supervision of pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, who held a tablet that showed every bit of data on every pitch.
In the backs of the minds of those who lived it, Nimmo said, is the bad memory of the end of last season. The Mets entered the final month poised to cruise to a division title and first-round playoff bye. Instead, they struggled down the stretch, their year ending on back-to-back torturous weekends: a three-game sweep at the hands of Atlanta, which won the NL East, and an exit in the best-of-three wild-card round against the Padres.
“It’s heartless, it’s cutting, it’s ruthless,” Showalter said. “Like I told them after the season was over, it’s not always fair. Life’s not always fair and baseball’s not always fair. But who’s to say what happened wasn’t fair? San Diego deserves certain things, too. Last year, people realized how fleeting it can be.”
This year, they want to avoid a repeat.
“In order to have something to finish, you gotta figure out a way to start it,” Showalter said. “We’re more interested in that part right now. We’re hoping to have a chance to have something to finish.
“[Winning] a hundred games is hard. Is our season a failure if we win 90? Whatever number you want to come up with, it’s about the endgame.”
It’s about the World Series.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
