Another season coming to an end, another September the New York Mets are making headlines for everything but playing meaningful baseball. This season was different, however, fans had something to be hopeful about. New billionaire owner Steve Cohen told fans he wanted to win immediately and his actions matched that. He signed SS Francisco Lindor to a massive deal, signed new starting pitchers, and bolstered a bullpen that has always been the team’s biggest issue. He was engaging with fans on social media which he quickly learned why other owners do not do that. He was a new owner delivering on promises right off the start. Cohen built a real belief within the fan base that things were going to be different and the New York Mets were demanding respect.
Welp if you’re a Mets fan you know how the season went. This team had a healthy lead in the NL East up until a disastrous August where the team went 8-19. It’s hard to believe if it were any other team than the Mets.
Thumbs Down
Instead of competing in a pennant race, the Mets were apologizing to fans. Not for failing to miss the playoffs once again, but because they were booing fans during a game. You really can’t make this stuff up.
After a game against the Washington Nationals in which New York won, newly-acquired Met Javier Báez was asked about the team’s “thumbs down” celebration. “It feels bad when I strike out and I get booed,” Báez told reporters. “It doesn’t really get to me, but I want to let [the fans] know that when we’re successful, we’re going to do the same thing, to let them know how it feels.” How does a team try and spin that to make fans still want to come to the stadium? Fans watched this team tumble out of first place, even with the addition of Baez, in one of the worst divisions in baseball just to have players mock them for having high expectations for them. If the team was winning would any of this even be happening?
Jacob deGrom’s Elbow
It would be tough for any franchise to lose their ace pitcher. Especially when that pitcher is the best in the league and an early MVP favorite. Jacob deGrom was pitching lights out this season until it all came to a hault. However it’s especially difficult when it’s the Mets and they say they’re not sure what’s wrong. He last pitched on July 7th and the team had been pretty quiet about what was actually wrong. This week the team announced it was a slight tear in the UCL, but that it’s healed on its own
When deGrom went down, the Mets were exposed for their lack of starting pitching depth. Noah Syndergaard was expected to return at some point this season and help this team make a deep playoff run. Instead he will likely pitch in the final week of the season for nothing more than to sell tickets. The lack of depth had been pointed out at the beginning of the season when the team chose to let Zach Wheeler walk to Philadelphia and Carlos Carrasco started the season injured.
Embarrassing Executives
It’s not just the players who are disappointing fans. From before the players even took the field, the Mets’ front office has been embarrassing the organization.
While it was nice to see Cohen take action when the public became aware of this, the embarrassment didn’t end there. The best part about the arrest? He was coming from team owner Steve Cohen’s house. Scott was serving as interim GM after Jared Porter was fired ONLY after it was made public that he was harrassing muliple women. Whether you want to believe it was a lack of oversight or not, it’s completely unacceptable and fans deserve a front office that respects all fans.
