With two teams that could be even more dominant than the ones that faced off in a close five-game series in 2000, the Mets and Yankees provided tantalizing hints of a potential second Subway World Series in 2022.
These occurred because both teams finished the season in first place, with the Yankees leading by a sizable margin until some setbacks in August.
Disappointing postseason performances ended those hopes when the Yankees were swept out of the ALCS by the Astros following their narrow victory over the Guardians in a five-game division series, and the Mets could not overcome the Padres in the new wild-card series after blowing the division in the final weekend.
It looked like a small bump in the road to both teams’ eventual return to glory when Aaron Judge ended the New York baseball season, and 2023 would bring better fortunes. Quite to the contrary, 2023 would rank among the worst seasons in New York baseball history, if not the worst.
For a variety of reasons, neither team took any noteworthy actions.
Never did the Mets get close.500 games after June 4 and a half, their strategy changed to trade veteran players—most notably Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander—for more highly regarded prospects, as they were willing to assist Texas and Houston in covering the costs associated with their respective payrolls.
With 75 victories, the Mets finished with a losing record, their second in three years under owner Steve Cohen and their 11th in fifteen seasons since leaving Shea Stadium.
The Yankees, meanwhile, did not fare much better; they narrowly avoided their first losing season since 1992 with a victory in game 161. The Yankees were finishing off four straight losing seasons when their last losing season occurred so long ago—a period of time when Buck Showalter was the team’s first manager and Derek Jeter was a rookie.
There are numerous reasons why both teams are struggling during some of August’s real “dog days.” One of the causes is both parties’ poor performance.
Among the Yankees’ biggest offenders was Giancarlo Stanton, who after batting, finished with a.191 average in 101 games.2022: 211 in 110 games. Stanton, who to his credit was hard on himself for his lengthy injury history and worst season of a 14-year career spanning 1,535 regular-season games, also missed two months due to a hamstring injury.
Jeff McNeil was one of the main players on the Mets that performed below expectations. A year after hitting.326 to win the batting title, he finished with a respectable.270 after hitting.303 in his final 52 games, which was thought to be the beginning of a pattern of alternating strong years with uneven seasons.
DJ LeMahieu is another player on both teams that doesn’t perform well; he hasn’t hit close to.300 since taking home the batting title in the 60-game 2020 season. LeMahieu’s averages since signing a six-year contract in January 2021 are.268,.261 and 2.43, respectively.
He hit a career-low.243 last year, and he needed a fantastic August to even finish above.240. Though he might have been unlucky and was still healing from the toe injury that prevented him from playing in the postseason, one might wonder if he is declining as he approaches his 36th season.
The Yankees were also derailed by injuries. In addition to Stanton’s hamstring problems, Anthony Rizzo missed games following August 1st because of a concussion. Though Rizzo was in the midst of his worst slump of the season, he went 4-for-4 against Kansas City on May 28. Two months later, after the injury occurred on a pickoff play with Fernando Tatis Jr., the concussion was finally diagnosed.
The Yankees were obviously derailed by Judge’s fractured toe, which cost him 42 games. The Yankees had won during his previous extended absences from the field, but this time they were 19-23 without him. They went 6-10 in his final 16 games away from the field, part of a 14-30 losing streak that included their first nine-game losing streak since 1982 and eliminated them from the race for a postseason spot in an expanded field.
For both teams, there were positive aspects despite their difficulties.
Gerrit Cole played for the Yankees, where he won the Cy Young Award, reduced his number of home runs allowed from 33 to 20, and won 15 games (though he could have won a few more if his offense had batted.231). Gerrit Cole also appeared capable of flirting with no-hitters.
Pete Alonso finished with a.217 batting average despite hitting 46 home runs for the Mets. This is a 64-point decline from his 2022 season, in which he hit 40 home runs and drove in 131 runs.
Since Alonso recently hired Scott Boras as his agent and hasn’t signed a new contract like many of the young Atlanta Braves, he could also become a major storyline. Though it is unlikely that new executive David Stearns will publicly reveal any details of an offer at a press conference on opening day like Brian Cashman did, how the Mets handle his impending free agency after this season could become as big of a story as the Judge saga of 2022.
There is still much to learn about the makeup of the Yankees and Mets. With the addition of Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, and Trent Grisham through trades, the Yankees have slightly improved their roster, but they still need more depth in the rotation beyond Cole unless they believe that Nestor Cortes will return to form and Carlos Rodon will perform noticeably better in his second year of a six-year contract.
Since their most notable pitching move is taking a chance on Luis Severino, whose Yankee tenure ended with a 6.88 ERA and an oblique injury, the Mets could use some more pitching depth behind Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana. The Mets are still missing a few bats in their lineup.
Much of how the teams perform in 2024 will depend on players’ health and output, but anyone who watches baseball in New York would prefer to forget what happened last summer.
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