Another One Bites the Dust

Billy Eppler, we hardly knew ye.

I wrote a piece last month titled "The Mets Are Still Searching for Stability." The Mets had just decided to hand pink slips to some director-level employees. At the time, it was speculated that the firings could be a sign that a new President of Baseball Operations was coming in, which proved accurate when David Stearns's hiring was announced a couple of weeks later. While the thought of Stearns coming on was exciting, one of the big hopes was that the constant comings and goings of key personnel would slow down a bit as the Mets transitioned to a more mature, steady operation. This made the news of GM Billy Eppler seemingly out-of-the-blue resigning an unpleasant reminder that we just aren't there yet.

The One That Didn't Get Away

Let the celebrations begin. David Stearns signing on as the new President of Baseball Operations signals the start of a new — hopefully much better — era for the New York Mets.

When last we met in this space, I wrote about my concerns that the hype surrounding David Stearns and the Mets was starting to feel like last winter's Carlos Correa debacle. Even though Correa is having a poor season in Minnesota, I never really got over the disappointment of how things turned out after the initial euphoria when the deal was announced. In my mind, there is a clear line of Mets misfortune running from Correa signing with the Twins through Edwin Díaz injuring his knee in the WBC, culminating in the front office finally bowing to reality at the trade deadline and acknowledging a failed season. Looking back, it feels like the baseball gods were sending a message: this ain't your year, Mets fans.

The Mets Are Still Searching for Stability

The Mets' decision to let go of key personnel might be a sign that a President of Baseball Operations hiring is imminent, but it also signals that there is still a long way to go for organizational stability.

While the Mets were idle on Thursday, news came out that the club had fired several folks in their organization, including some who held high-ranking director roles. Among them were Kevin Howard, the Director of Player Development; Director of Pro Player Evaluation Jeff Lebow; Director of Performance Jim Cavallini; and Director of Baseball Development Bryan Hayes. I guess it's no surprise that heads were going to roll as the Mets wrap up possibly the most disappointing season in team history. That's quite an achievement, given how many hugely disappointing seasons Mets fans have lived through.

There Are Reasons Beyond Money to Be a New York Met

For years, the Mets had to overpay or settle for lesser free agents. Those days are mercifully over.

As I noted in my previous post, baseball media pundits have shifted from a speculative consensus that Jacob deGrom would sign with another team this winter to a much more optimistic narrative (outside of ESPN) that the New York Mets could actually retain their ace. My personal preference has always been for the Mets to retain one of their all-time great pitchers. Not at all costs, however, but rather after making a proper assessment of Jake's future value. After all, no other team in baseball should have a better idea of where deGrom stands medically and how much it is reasonable to expect from him going forward. As long as another team doesn't go way out on a limb with their offer, I hope the Mets re-sign him.

Changing Perceptions

Steve Cohen and the Mets have dramatically reversed last fall's negative coverage and the perception around baseball that the Mets were an organization in trouble.

As the New York Mets continue their preparations for the 2022 season, it's startling to see how the perception of the team has changed since last fall. Unfortunately, as has become all too common in recent years, the Mets were again spectators in October while other teams vied for a championship. Steve Cohen's first year as owner of the Mets was a disappointment — not only to fans, but I'm sure to the man himself. Mistakes and missteps were definitely made, but the local and national media were engaging in a frenzy of negativity in their coverage of the team. Much of that negativity was overblown and unfair.

The Media's Unfair Rush to Judgment

A lot has happened since the last time I posted here. The Astros and Braves will compete against each other in a World Series that doesn't hold much interest for me. The 2021 baseball season is rapidly winding down to a conclusion. What started back in late March with a ton of optimism for the New York Mets and those of us who love them is ending with the Mets in their usual position this time of year — just an afterthought for all but the most diehard fans.

The Real Work Lies Ahead

In my last post, I shared some thoughts on the current punditry that the New York Mets organization has reverted to WILPON ERA DYSFUNCTION. Especially amusing was the idea that the value of the Mets had "gone backward significantly," with Steve Cohen's tweets a significant contributor to that drop in value. This was a ludicrous statement from an unnamed "former MLB executive." The Mets organization has indeed made some serious, high-profile blunders since Cohen took over. Still, the Mets are a viable franchise in the country's largest (by far) sports market. There's a difference between temporary setbacks and long-term trends that would hurt the franchise's value as a whole.

Making the Future Brighter, Part 2

Although I am not someone with the skills to evaluate prospects, I've been interested in scouting and development for quite a while. Years ago, as I began to question the lack of sustained success by the New York Mets, I began to look around at the clubs that were much more successful — particularly in smaller markets than New York. The biggest common denominator was an ability to find and develop Major League ballplayers. There are a lot of moving parts in scouting and development. All of them have to be working properly for a club to attain and sustain success at the Major League level. As important as developing a good number of contributing Major League ballplayers, it's even more important that some players become impact Major Leaguers.

Mailing It In

The title of this post has nothing to do with the way the New York Mets are playing. Sure, they've been up and down this past week. Their offense is unwatchable at times, which predates many of their better players going on the IL. The team's chances of ever fulfilling their offensive potential now seem to hang on whether they can get their best players healthy and keep them that way. All things considered, the Mets are doing okay right now, keeping things going despite the ever-growing Injured List. Even a tough loss tonight from a tired bullpen doesn't change that.

We've Been Here Before

Turns out that the Mets won't be playing baseball in the snow tonight in Denver. Tonight's game has been canceled. They'll be playing a doubleheader tomorrow instead. The forecast for tomorrow isn't calling for snow, but the high temperature will only be around 40°, with the low dropping into the 20s. But that's okay, right? They'll do the smart thing and schedule the doubleheader for the afternoon and miss the worst of the weather... no, what am I thinking? A 3 PM start local time will ensure that the temperature will be below freezing before both games complete. I honestly don't get it. At this point, the best that we can hope for is that all three games are played this weekend, the Mets won't be forced to go back out to Colorado again later in the season, and no one gets hurt.

Normal is Good

We're a mere two weeks away from the start of the 2021 baseball season. This is a marked improvement from a year ago when the COVID-19 epidemic had already shut down baseball. Even then, we were all only beginning to understand how much of our lives would be shut down and how long it would take to return to normal. We're not quite there yet but, if you squint hard, you can actually see normal from where we are now. For a while, it seemed that we would never get to this place.

More Baseball, Less Drama Please

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face. For a baseball nerd, the first day of training camp is always special. Sure, after a couple of weeks, spring training gets boring. You find yourself pining for the regular season to start. But this year, with so many new faces around, even the spring games will be more fun than usual. In any case, it's not just about baseball coming back. As I get older, I find myself with drastically diminishing patience for winter to pack up and ship out. The start of spring training offers an early promise that warm weather will eventually return to the icy northeast. With another crappy weather forecast for tomorrow, you take all of the hope you can find.

Stuff You Should Have Learned in Junior High School

What a strange few months this has been. When Steve Cohen was approved as the Mets' new owner, it seemed that this offseason would be all about significant player moves and signings, something Mets fans like myself have been hoping to see for years. The trade for Francisco Lindor was all that and then some, but all of the extracurricular noise has overshadowed it a bit. In fact, I had to look up the exact date of the deal and was shocked to realize it went down less than a month ago. Then it occurred to me that it's only been two weeks since Jared Porter was shown the door and barely over three months since Steve Cohen's purchase was approved. Didn't he used to have a Twitter account, or am I remembering that wrong? I know time feels different since COVID-19 gummed everything up, but this is nuts. I picked an interesting year, indeed, to return to blogging.

Filling the Gap

I wrote a post yesterday on the Jared Porter firing. I not only believe the Mets did the right thing by firing him, I think it was their only possible move once all of the facts came out. The type of behavior that the man engaged in was not only morally indefensible, but also showed such an extreme lack of judgment that essentially disqualified him from any possibility of staying in such an important position. A friend of mine asked me if I thought it mattered that Porter's toxic interaction with the female journalist happened a few years ago. The guy was in his mid-30s at the time, hardly a kid, and the actions were way beyond inappropriate, so no.

Thoughts on George Springer and Jared Porter

Your order is up, Mr. Porter

I started writing a post about Jared Porter yesterday, but then doctor appointments chewed up the majority of my day. I have a few thoughts on that matter that I'll share later in this post, but I thought I would weigh in on George Springer's signing with the Blue Jays first. I spent most of this offseason pretty sure that Springer would sign with the Mets, especially once they signed James McCann to be their starting catcher. I stopped believing that Springer would be a Met the day the Francisco Lindor trade was announced. I still hoped that the Mets might somehow land the guy, but I knew that it would require some luck. The reality of the situation was that the Blue Jays were able to offer more than the Mets were comfortable with to land the guy. Frankly, if the rumors that the Mets were willing to go up to north of $120 million to land Springer are true, I find it hard to find fault with that effort.

The Mets Can Still Use Starting Pitching

Now that Carlos Carrasco has joined Francisco Lindor on the Mets, the team has a top 3 in their rotation to match up with anyone in baseball. If Noah Syndergaard makes it back and the other three remain healthy — always a big if when you're talking pitching — the Mets would have as good of a rotation 1-4 as they've had in many years, easily one of the best in baseball this year. Combined with the solid offense and a defense that has certainly been upgraded and could be a really solid group if a true CF is signed, this is a legit playoff contender with a real shot at going all the way. But the questions certainly remain when it comes to the depth of this rotation, and we've seen lack of depth sabotage many promising Mets seasons in recent years.

On Extending Lindor and Sustaining Success

Now that the Mets have Francisco Lindor on their roster, the next big question is how they go about trying to keep him past this season. I think we can assume that it's a given that they at least make a big effort at extending him. I've seen some in the media postulate that the Mets may want to wait until they've had a chance to see how Lindor reacts to playing in New York, which would obviously mean that negotiations wouldn't even start before the season got underway. I could understand the rationale for that thinking. Not every player thrives in this city. I might even feel the same way myself if Lindor was under contract for a couple of years. That's not the case, however, so if the Mets decided to go that route they would need to ask themselves how long they would be willing to wait to begin negotiations, and if Lindor would even be willing to negotiate during the season. At his press conference today he indicated fairly strongly that he wouldn't do that.

Maximizing Player Value

The Tampa Bay Rays get a lot of credit, most of it deserved, for running a pretty successful baseball club on a small budget. Of course, it wasn't always that way. When they came into being as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, they spent their first decade of existence in last place in the AL East. Their best year from 1998-2007 was in 2004, the only time they won 70 games. Meanwhile, they lost over 100 games in three different years. I know the Mets franchise got off to a much tougher start back in the sixties, but baseball was much less liberal in giving players to expansion teams back then, and there was no amateur draft until 1965. I'd argue that being terrible for a decade puts the Rays in a class by themselves for ineptitude, despite the assist from the Mets in giving up Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano in 2004.

Eating Your Vegetables

When I was a kid, my brother and I were raised by my maternal grandmother after my underequipped Mom punted on the responsibility. My grandmother has been gone for many years now, but she remains one of the finest people I have ever known in my life, and also one of the greatest Mets fans. My grandmother had the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known, but she was somewhat overmatched trying to raise a couple of kids at an age when she should have been able to kick back and relax a little — not that that was ever part of her personality. Looking back, my grandmother contributed much of what has made me a decent person. Sadly, though, I didn't realize most of this until many years later.

Here's to a Future Lurker

This is my first full offseason blogging in a decade. One thing I learned my first time around is to have some writing ideas at the ready for the long periods with no news, particularly over the holidays. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have a "saved stories" folder in my newsreader with stuff going back to October. I didn't have time to write about this stuff then, but It's a great source for content at times like this. Or maybe I do what I did during the weird coronavirus extended offseason this spring when I came back to blogging, and write a series of posts on a particular past season that had a special meaning for me. I'm interested in a lot of facets of baseball and enjoy writing about them, so I usually don't struggle too much coming up with writing topics.