As soon as the ball drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, Mets fans desire the following: the beginning of the team’s next season. They fervently hope that David Stearns, their new president of baseball operations, and their owner, Steve Cohen, will not only usher in the new and ring out the old, but also begin demonstrating to them that the upcoming season will be far better than the previous one.
“Ya gotta believe” was the Mets’ catchphrase once, fifty years ago, according to Tug McGraw. Fans of the Mets now merely want to think that the management is focused on winning a World Series.
Even though there is no assurance they will be able to keep him at Yankee Stadium past this season, the Yankees executed one of the most significant moves they have made in years across town for Juan Soto. The Dodgers recently spent more than $1 billion to get Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the most sought-after free agency pitcher available this year, and Shohei Ohtani, one of the most sought-after free agents of all time.
Ohtani and Soto were never acquired by the Mets. They had Yamamoto covered. After the game, Cohen would declare that his team “left it all on the field.” It doesn’t alter the fact that the Dodgers have been acting in the ways that Mets supporters anticipated Cohen would act upon purchasing the organization. The owner and management of the team are under equal pressure from their fan base to make significant improvements, just as they are in Boston, where the Red Sox are coming off of yet another disappointing season. In the NL East, the Mets came in fourth place. But because of the high expectations and the record payroll from the previous season, it seemed like the last in New York.
Due in large part to the extravagant contracts he gave Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, Cohen has already demonstrated that he is not afraid to spend money. However, Verlander has returned to the Astros, while Scherzer is now with the Rangers. Soto hails from New York. Dodgers Ohtani and Yamamoto. And the fans of the Mets genuinely want to see if this is the beginning of the end for their franchise.
Following the Soto trade, when the Yankees were also fully committed to Yamamoto, general manager Brian Cashman of the Yankees stated, “The future is always now.” For supporters of the Mets, that means 2024, not 2025 or later.
Before pitchers and catchers report to Port St. Lucie, Florida, there is still plenty of time. With few instances, baseball is quiet between Christmas and New Year’s, even if the Dodgers made a big splash this past week when they introduced Yamamoto. Despite the loudest December the Dodgers have ever had in Los Angeles, the Mets are hardly the only team that has been largely silent thus far.
But the hiring of Carlos Mendoza, the team’s rookie manager, is the only big addition the Mets have made since bringing in David Stearns after the season ended so disappointingly. After one of the biggest trade deadline deals in the team’s history, which saw New York send off players like Scherzer, Verlander, David Robertson, who took Edwin Díaz’s place as closer, and even Tommy Pham, who helped the D-backs win the World Series, fans of the Mets are now waiting to see what happens.
“We’re going to be thoughtful and not impulsive and thinking about sustainability over the intermediate long-term, but not focused on winning the headlines over the next week,” Cohen said. “I think there’s a couple of ways to build a team.”
In baseball, it is a well-known truth that the club with the biggest payroll does not necessarily win the World Series. You constantly have to remind people that the 2018 Red Sox and the 2020 Dodgers were the only two of the previous ten World Series champions with the biggest payrolls. The Rangers, who had the fourth-highest payroll in the Major League Baseball, recently won the World Series; the D-backs, whom they defeated in the Fall Classic, were rated twenty-first.
Thus, Cohen is correct: There are various approaches to team building. Mets supporters observe how the Braves have succeeded in the NL East and how the Phillies continue to do so. Mets supporters are currently awaiting the decision made by Cohen and Stearns. They know all the rumors around one of the best home run hitters in the game, Pete Alonso, who is set to become a free agency and wonder if he would sign a long-term deal that will keep him in New York for the remainder of his career. The beginning rotation has numerous holes, which Mets fans are certainly aware of. Furthermore, nobody is sure how Díaz, one of the best closers New York baseball has ever seen in 2022, would recover from the World Baseball Classic-related knee injury.
Again: Spring Training is a long way off. Longer still until Opening Day. It doesn’t alter the reality that the Mets’ management is now under contract. as soon as the sphere falls. This is New York. The future is always here. as in the present.