Mets forced to learn some hard lessons
Francisco Lindor getting high-fives after hitting a home run in the bottom of the first inning against San Diego Padres at Citi Field in on Oct. 8, 2022. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
After they conceded the NL East title to Atlanta, whatever value the Mets’ 101-win regular season had left officially expired at 10:11 p.m. Sunday with the Game 3 loss to the Padres that bounced them from October.
But that number was repeated often by the Mets as they changed into street clothes, packed up boxes and said their clubhouse goodbyes for a premature winter. Some cited those 101 wins as a badge of honor, tangible proof that these Mets were a special team, as only the 1986 championship club had more. Others, like Brandon Nimmo, had a different perspective.
“Nobody really cares how you do in the regular season,” he said in the aftermath of the shocking 6-0 rout by the Padres. “It doesn’t matter when you come to the postseason. Everybody starts new. All it matters is that you get in. Nobody cares that we won 101 games — just that we lost these two.”
The Mets’ playoff hopes died over the weekend at Citi Field, but that doesn’t make what happened meaningless. Or shouldn’t, anyway. And this season can’t be taken for granted.
Sure, it ultimately was a failure. Any team that spends $290 million for the highest payroll in the sport is supposed to last longer into October. One more round, at the minimum.
So take this season for what it’s worth at this point — a cautionary tale, a lesson learned, a steppingstone to greater achievement going forward.
The tough part to hear now is that following this playoff dud with another 100-win season is likely to be more difficult, as the Mets already had the oldest roster in baseball, by average age, with a dozen key players headed for free agency.
Jacob deGrom, Nimmo and Edwin Diaz are the headliners of that free-agent bunch, joined by three more big rotation pieces in Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker along with another pair of high-leverage relievers, Seth Lugo and Adam Ottavino. Even superfan owner Steve Cohen, who’s valued at $17.5 billion, according to Forbes’ recent evaluation, isn’t going to lay out the cash to bring everyone back.
And that wouldn’t be the smart strategy anyway. The Yankees have tried running it back in seasons past, figuring the previous group was only one bad pitch away from the World Series, and all they got one was another year older and further removed from the next title.
What Cohen needs to grasp, in working with general manager Billy Eppler and manager Buck Showalter, is identifying this roster’s weaknesses and designing a better blueprint for the 2023 mission.
Having Cohen as owner removes money as an alibi for falling short, but the Mets didn’t seem to do a good enough job evaluating how unique their opportunity was for this October.
When they were unable to bring in another major-impact bat at the trade deadline, Eppler boasted that he didn’t have to deal away any of the organization’s top 19 prospects to acquire Darin Ruf, Daniel Vogelbach and Mychal Givens.
That wasn’t something to be proud of, especially when you consider that none of those 19 helped with the Mets’ immediate pursuit of winning a playoff round.
To be fair, this was Eppler’s first season in Flushing, under a relatively new owner, so it’s understandable if the front office came off as indecisive at times. This group hasn’t been together a calendar year yet. But for the credit they got with last winter’s aggressive free-agent haul, the Cohen-Eppler-Showalter triumvirate has to advance the significant strides the Mets made this season.
The Mets have created a solid foundation of team-wide accountability saddled with high expectations. But now they have to improve on that, perhaps with the sting of this year’s collapse over the final 10 days — yes, collapse — providing some extra motivation.
It took the Dodgers eight consecutive playoff appearances after their 2012 sale (for $2 billion) — including two failed World Series trips — before winning the 2020 title. Atlanta, the defending world champion, won last year’s Fall Classic in its fourth try.
“You’ve got to build from this year and move forward,” Francisco Lindor said. “I haven’t been here long enough. I’m sure that’s the same speech every single year. But at the end of the day, I truly believe that this is a step in the right direction.”
Lindor had better hope so. He’s locked up for another nine seasons.
Since the Mets last made the playoffs in 2016, they’ve had five GMs and five managers in those six years alone. Those numbers aren’t likely to change for 2023, but the Mets will look different, and they’ve learned the wins that count have to come in October.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
