Regarding this Mets offseason, what is true and what is untrue?
Fans on social media are engaged in heated discussions on the team’s position in the middle of the summer. On Twitter, aspiring celebrities engage in combat with voiceless, faceless trolls. Thirteen-year-old females are almost yelling at the Sean Manaea signing on TikTok, while other girls are dancing joyfully over Harrison Bader’s inclusion. People at MySpace can’t wait to see what Jason Bay can do. Keep it a surprise for them.
Optimists perceive just one. Realists perceive something different. What is a falsehood and what is the truth regarding the Mets? Let’s try to uncover their true identities by playing the age-old game of “two truths and a lie.”
Mets Reality: There’s a chance the team can make the playoffs.
For the Mets, this is hardly a white flag season. They can certainly contend for a postseason berth. Accepting this fact is necessary, even if the ball club failed you down this winter. There will be some hope for the hopeless with expanded playoffs and a National League standard that allows a club just above.500 to sneak in and win the World Series.
Fans will have strong opinions on David Stearns’ additions to the roster because of all the “ifs” and “buts” he made. The reality? He has assembled a club that has a strong chance of competing with the Miami Marlins or Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023. The Philadelphia Phillies aren’t quite at the top of the wild card seed rankings. A few fortunate bounces and games that are taken from the jaws of loss can have a significant impact.
Whether or not Stearns blows everything up at the trade deadline will depend on how the Mets play in the first half. If necessary, the roster is ready to become a big seller. We shouldn’t, however, anticipate the squad to go all out and sacrifice a lot of their farm system in order to win the all in 2024, even if they do well.
Rivalry-based? Indeed. Contestants? When June ends, take a look at the standings.
Mets Truth: As of the conclusion of the previous season, the roster is improved.
It wouldn’t be fair, technically, to compare the team’s current lineup to that of the end of 2023 if we were going to compare rosters. Nothing about the presence of Rafael Ortega, Jonathan Arrauz, and other players for weeks at Citi Field scared anyone. It’s still true that they have made progress.
The beginning rotation is a great deal better than it was in the last few days of 2024. Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, and Adrian Houser are better pitchers than the ones the Mets were using on the mound every fifth or sixth day, even if you don’t believe in them. With the exception of Carlos Carrasco, who is noticeably absent, many of those players are still in the lineup.
There is greater disagreement when comparing the Mets’ current appearance to their early season form. On paper, the Mets appeared formidable. They were actually a little more broken. It wasn’t Max Scherzer as usual. A season marred by injuries was about to begin for Starling Marte. Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha were a step or two behind where they were only a season before. Clearly, Brett Baty was outmatched.
Given how far below expectations the Mets fell last season, it is unfair to compare them to this one. Actually, I think it’s more of an attraction than anything else. The lineup remains almost unchanged. The peaks that the starting pitching staff can achieve are equal to the troughs that Scherzer and Justin Verlander experienced in the previous campaign. The bullpen will provide the tie-breaker, and it’s completely unclear what will happen to this motley crew.
Mets Lie: It was an excellent winter for David Stearns.
The biggest blow to Stearns feels to be that the Mets did not sign any star players this summer. Apart from ticket sales, especially while traveling, what other use does celebrity power serve anyway?
Fans of the Mets don’t need to purchase any new shirts. Does this imply that the winter break was a bust?
Some people think well of what Stearns has accomplished. He hasn’t made any crazy commitments. Everything is really a stopgap measure until greater things happen soon.
Okay, so perhaps not. To put it another way for people who don’t ride the stagecoach, to suggest that Stearns had a great winter would be like placing the dessert before the appetizer. Even if Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s absence from the Mets this offseason wasn’t their fault in the end, it still hurt. An executive in front office has limited capabilities. He was invited to supper by the owner! What more were the Mets capable of doing? On his way out, did Steve Cohen refuse Yamamoto a toy from the toy chest?
The reason you can be OK with Stearns’ offseason is because the bar has been reduced. Nobody should be booking playoff tickets just yet because of often injured players added to a roster that is already dubious.
Even if the Mets have improved, the majority of their actions have been lateral in character with the intention of seeming better. The Mets really did stick to their plan this offseason after laying it out. They were effective in sticking to it. We’ll play the games regardless of whether it was a wise plan or not.