2022 Mets Recap

 

Sometime in August, Joe Beningo came back to the FAN to do a couple of shows in his old time slot. 

And he hadn’t changed a bit. He was still complaining about everything. And he also said that nothing less than a World Championship for the Mets would be a failure in his eyes.

I knew where he was coming from, I’ve done as much kvetching about the Mets as he has (at a 100% discount I might add).

But I thought maybe he was overreacting a tad. I thought back to the combined no-hitter in April that Timmy got to see live. I thought about the game against the Phillies when they were down 7-1 in the 9th and came back to win. There was a game in St.Louis where they scored 5 in the top of the 9th to win. Even a couple of their losses, they showed some heart. That game in San Francisco where they were 7 runs down, yet came back to send it to extra innings. I thought this team had heart. I thought they had guts. 

Well, you saw what happened last night.

You saw what happened in September. 

The bottom line is that if it weren’t for the expanded playoff format, this would have been pretty much the same choke job the Mets had in 2007 and 2008. A division lead that they pissed away.

Up until last night, I supported the company line..No the team didn’t collapse, the Braves just played otherworldly. The Mets played well, the Braves played better. It’s true to an extent.

But it’s also true that they had a cream puff schedule in September and didn’t take advantage of it. Swept by the Cubs, lost 2 out of 3 to the Nationals. Lost a game to the A’s where they scored 3 quick runs in the first and had Jacob deGrom going. Lost one to the Pirates, a couple to the Marlins, you see where I’m going with this? 

Getting swept by the Braves was obviously the death knell for these guys. I simply hoped that they would shake that off, and take advantage of the gift they had been given by the lords of baseball. I mean as a fan of the team, it stung that we were in 1st place pretty much from the gate, only to lose it at the wire. And the only way to get that taste out of our mouths was to take care of business against a good but not great San Diego Padres team.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead they played small when they needed to play big. They played scared instead of playing angry. They folded when they should have been strong. 

They choked.

Max Scherzer, he of the $43 million contract, spit the bit twice. Once against the Braves, once against the Padres. Same with Chris Bassitt. We’re stuck with Scherzer, but Bassitt’s a free agent. Nice knowing ya kid. Adios!

If I’m Steve Cohen I let deGrom know that if he does indeed opt out as he says he is, that he’s not welcome back here either. He has spent the better part of the last two seasons on the injured list. He came back in August, looked like his old self, and then he too went to the crapper in September. He pitched well against the Padres in Game 2, but he lost that aforementioned game against Oakland, and then again last week vs Atlanta. He pitched better vs the Braves, but still lost. He wants the money Scherzer’s got? Let someone else give it to him, then have to sweat it out hoping he doesn’t blow out his arm. Bye!

In hockey at or around the NHL trading deadline, the Rangers made a bunch of good moves. And while the Rangers were bounced from the playoffs, the guys they got at the deadline all contributed. Unfortunately, due to the NHL salary cap, they all ended up going elsewhere after the season ended.

I want all 4 of the guys the Mets got at the deadline gone from the roster by spring training. I don’t want any of them back. They ended up being what I thought they were at the time. Overrated.

Daniel Vogelbach was a one trick pony who couldn’t perform the trick he was hired to do (hit righty pitching) nearly enough. Same with Tyler Naquin. Darrin Ruf, who we traded JD Davis to get was the worst of all. That may go down as one of the worst trades in Mets history. (And that’s saying something) 

So you may be asking, who are you going to replace all these guys that you are getting rid of with? Easy! Let’s bring up all those gold star prospects we didn’t want to trade at the deadline for some real talent. 

I mean seriously, we have a catcher in James McCann who can barely stay healthy and when he does, can’t hit? Tomas Nido seems like a nice guy, but is consistently inconsistent. So why go out and get Wilson Contreras from the Cubs when you have that dynamic duo. And we knew way back when we needed lefty bullpen help, but again nothing doing. 

Meanwhile, the team that just sent us packing, the Padres went out and got Juan Soto and Josh Hader, a big bat and a reliever. Soto would have cost too much, but if Hader was available why weren’t we in on that?

That falls on GM Billy Eppler, and the only reason I’m not calling for him to be canned is that he did a real good job in the offseason under difficult circumstances. But he blew it at the trade deadline. He has to own that. 

When the Mets qualified for this watered down playoff format, someone (I heard it was Cohen himself) decided that there would be no champagne celebrations till they went further in the playoffs. I applaud that. THAT is forward thinking. Now, I want Cohen to make sure that there is no banner or plaque out on the outfield wall saying “Hey we made the playoffs in 2022.” The plaque out there for the 2016 play in game burns my ass every time I see it. The only thing this team needs to acknowledge is that they lost to a team they were 12 games better than in the regular season. At home, all three games at home. 

There is nothing to be proud of here. Nothing to celebrate. Don’t think about the no-hitter or the comeback wins in April and May. Don’t think about the 101 wins.

Think about how you blew it in September. Think about how you couldn’t win one game in Atlanta. Think about how you only managed one hit in an elimination game at home (first team in baseball history to pull that off according to the experts there at ESPN). 

Think about how you collapsed. How you choked. 

The season was a failure. Think about that.