As a longtime New York Mets fan, I know things can and likely will get worse for this team. They’re in the middle of yet another lost season and honestly, they just aren’t fun to watch. It’s time to ask the question all Mets fans have been avoiding. Are things better than they were under the Wilpons?
Maybe it’s because expectations were sky-high when billionaire Steve Cohen bought the team and the team has done nothing but underperform. Mets’ fans were all too willing to believe the dream Cohen sold them after years of watching their team owners sit out on so many free agents. Maybe it’s because he marketed himself as a Mets fan first who just wanted to see his favorite team win finally.
After sitting just one game above .500 at the end of April, the team continues to freefall. The team with the league’s highest payroll is still running out Triple-A players. Not that there’s anything wrong with players from the farm getting playing time, but it’s been inconsistent and lackluster at best. It’s yet another season the New York Mets will be sellers at the trade deadline.
The team finished last season in fourth place in the NL East with yet another losing record, 75-87. The Braves had a TWENTY-NINE game lead over them in the division and easily won another NL East title. The Mets find themselves currently in fourth place once again in the division. Cohen can pretend that he still envisions this current team in the playoffs, but nobody is buying it. Even with a full overhaul, this team likely wouldn’t finish the season with a winning record.
One of the biggest problems under the Cohen regime is the inability to convince big-name free agents like Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani to sign here. At this point, why would players like Soto or Ohtani want to? What incentives do Cohen and the Mets have to get top players to ink a deal to play in Queens? Soto is having a career season across town with a chance to make a deep playoff run. Money can bring players to the table, but if the team is running on chaos that can just as quickly turn players off.
Now their biggest star, Pete Alonso, is headed to free agency and the team has shown no urgency to lock up the only player bringing people to Citi Field. On the flip side, Alonso could be the team’s best option to trade at the deadline because no other player will bring a return close to Alonso. The return has to be great because getting rid of Alonso, their biggest power threat, would set the team back in talent.
Edwin Diaz came back this season after tearing his Achilles and missing all of last season. His return was supposed to be one of the biggest in all of baseball. Just two seasons ago he was one of the biggest attractions at the ballpark with the team amplifying his entrance late in games followed by his electrifying pitching. However, like the rest of the team, he has underperformed so much so that the team is now using a “closer by committee” system.
Not like that has worked out much better as the Mets continue to lose games in late innings regularly. Diaz is now back on the IL and hopefully, he can get his mind right after he was visibly emotional while discussing his struggles this season. Diaz joins Kodai Senga who has yet to make his season debut after an impressive rookie season.
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I’m not going to pile onto Jorge Lopez. It seemed obvious he stated teammate rather than team, but the internet ran with it and now he’s out of a job. The telling sign was that not one of his teammates came to his defense. Francisco Lindor called a team meeting after the incident, but this is more of a symptom of the Mets’ actual issue rather than the cause.
One player who spent a short time in Queens, Tommy Pham, had less than kind words for the way things were going in Queens. Last season Pham was traded before last season’s deadline. Pham referred to the position players as the “least hard-working group of position players”. He continued by stating the team just overall needed to work harder. Yikes, even for the Mets thislly embarrassing. Even more embarrassing is you can argue they didn’t use that as motivation and still aren’t working hard enough.
There is no one to blame but Cohen. As the richest owner in the league, he promised championships were on their way. To be fair he did spend a lot of money, but it felt like money was spent just to say money was spent because none of those deals worked out. Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander only lasted a few months before being traded to playoff teams while New York missed the playoffs. Fans will have to be patient yet again as they watch the Braves, Phillies, and Dodgers continue their dominance in the National League.
What Cohen seems to lack in the scouting department, he has made up in fan experiences with former players like Doc Gooden, Keith Hernandez, and Darryl Strawberry all finally being honored. All three fan favorites were able to see their numbers hung up at Citi Field never to be worn again. Those are temporary feel-good moments to cover up the lack of winning this current team is doing. No more words need to be said, just action AKA winning.
