The Silver Lining For Mets Fans
The Silver Lining For Mets Fans
The Amazins suffered a brutal first-round playoff exit yesterday. But unlike after past postseason debacles, there is reason for hope going forward.
I was pulling for the Mets to bounce back off the mat last night. Not because I thought New York would have been any easier opponent for the Dodgers to face in the NLDS, but because the Mets vs. Padres game was the only winner-take-all wild-card tilt on the slate yesterday. And after everything we’ve been through these past few years trying to dodge a plague, I truly believed we deserved to go into extra innings. (Also, dual scrambling bullpens would have been good for the Dodgers).
Alas.
The Mets Mets’d their biggest game of the season, and collected just one lousy hit in a nine-inning blowout that saw them lose 6-0.
Woof.
I know Mets’ fans deserve at least a week of wallowing in the familiar cursed pain that only this fanbase knows. I understand that Gary Cohen (and others) woke up feeling humiliated by the Mets’ desperate move of checking Padres’ pitcher Joe Musgrove for cheating because he so thoroughly embarrassed Mets hitters:
But I woke up this morning feeling like things will be different for these Mets going forward. Maybe I have a different perspective, having watched the Dodgers with a microscope over the past decade. Like the Mets, a new ownership group bought the Dodgers from a broke one. And like the Mets, despite the new group pouring obscene amounts of money into the team’s roster, a world championship was not captured overnight.
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That’s because (unless you’re a Marlins fan!) winning it all on your very first try under new ownership is extremely difficult. The reality is it took the new Dodgers owners eight years of spending a lot of money plus adding Andrew Friedman’s brain to finally capture a title. I know it’s of little consolation to tell Mets fans to just wait until 2029, but there’s a very simple reason why this loss should not be as devastating as all the team’s playoff exits since they last won a championship in 1986: Steve Cohen’s money.
I understand fans are bitterly disappointed about the team’s collapse this month, especially with Jacob deGrom and Edwin Diaz on the cusp of free agency, and this group of players seeming to really like each other. I get it. But here’s the thing: unless deGrom wants out of New York, the Mets are going to re-sign him because they have to. He’s the best pitcher they’ve drafted and developed since Doc Gooden, he’s never been anything but a Met, and Cohen has more money than any other owner. If the Braves offer deGrom $50 million a year, Cohen can offer $51 million a year. And he’s just crazy (and generous!) enough to do that.
And even if for some reason the Mets lose deGrom in free agency, Cohen will open up his fat wallet and sign other superstar players to ensure this team makes it back to the playoffs every single year until the Mets are once again at the top of the baseball world. When Cohen bought the Mets, I wrote that he was trying to re-make the team in the Dodgers image (he was the runner-up bidder in the Dodgers sale back in 2012). Over past decade, the Dodgers have lost Zack Greinke, Max Scherzer, Yu Darvish and Corey Seager to free agency. They have traded away Nathan Eovaldi and Yordan Alvarez. They have not missed the playoffs once.
This is because they have the money to pay free agents like Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman to come play for them in Los Angeles, and they have the stomach to do it. Cohen has both.
I know Mets’ fans are still reeling from decades of incompetent Wilpon ownership. But things are different now. How different? Well, Cohen could afford to sign deGrom, Diaz, Aaron Judge and Nolan freaking Arenado (assuming he opts out) if he wants to. We are talking about a man worth $17.4 billion who actually cares about the Mets winning baseball games. If that were me? I’d push the payroll up to $400 million because that’s merely a number behind a decimal point in my life I could write off potential losses for tax purposes, and also who cares?
The Mets have made the playoffs only 10 times in their 60-season history. I fully expect them to make the playoffs 10 times in the next 10 years, just as the Dodgers have over the past decade. If you’re a Mets fan, and you can accept this as a possibility, does it make today sting any less?
It’s true this version of the Braves is better than any team the Dodgers have had to beat in the NL West over the past decade (except the 2021 Giants, who they did not beat until the playoffs). But with the expansion of the number of wild-card teams, I feel good about the Mets being regular October participants for as long as Cohen owns the team.
There’s a bittersweetness that comes with always being contenders, however, so I’ll offer a word of warning to Mets fans before that happens. As Dodger fans are now finding out, when you dominate in the regular season with such regularity, ho-hum summer wins don’t mean as much. October becomes the only thing that matters. Los Angeles, for instance, has just capped off the best season in franchise history, having won 111 games. Dodger fans are so spoiled by success, however, that anything short of winning the World Series (or at least making the World Series) will feel like a stone cold failure. These are, quite literally, champagne problems.
I know Mets fans are hurting right now, but I urge you to keep the faith. The only way to win in October is to make it there. And unlike after recent past playoff losses, the team’s new owner has the ability and the willingness to throw money at any problems that arise this offseason. Fans will no longer be stuck watching top talent leave because every bank froze the Wilpons’ ATM cards.
Today is nothing but pain, but the future looks brighter than ever.
Ah, to have the Mets’ problems. As a lifelong Pirates fan, having watched Roberto Clemente as a child and the great Pirate teams of the 70s and early 90s, I now follow a team which has no present (100 losses two straight years) and no future (an owner who is guaranteed a profit if the team loses every game and draws no fans).
Edwin Diaz coming into the game to Timmy Trumpet’s Narco to me was even more inappropriate considering the circumstances than Showalter calling for a foreign substance check.