Empire Writes Back
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Analyzing The Reality of The Mets’ Season

By John Carroll Jr.

PHOENIX, AZ - APRIL 15: Manager Terry Collins of the New York Mets watches from the dugout during the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on April 15, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. All uniformed team members are wearing jersey number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
PHOENIX, AZ - APRIL 15: Manager Terry Collins of the New York Mets watches from the dugout during the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on April 15, 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. All uniformed team members are wearing jersey number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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The New York Mets are 20 months out of winning a pennant and less than 12 months out of hosting an MLB Playoff game. So, what the heck happened?

Here is my take:

I think it is time to accept that making the MLB Playoffs is a really difficult task.

There is a ton of games, a ton traveling, a ton of pressure, and most of all not a lot of playoff spots.

The Mets overcame these factors, and endless more the last two years. They made the playoffs in

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consecutive seasons for just the second time in team history.

When the Mets were struggling in April it was the least of the fans’ concerns for one, it’s April and two, the Mets were in a similar position in 2016 and made the playoffs.

Then things started unraveling, quickly.

It is now August and they are still struggling.

In April, ace Noah Syndergaard went down with a torn lat. He refused an MRI, bulked up in the offseason for no apparent reason, and has not pitched since right before May.

It has only become recently obvious how much that injury halted the team’s progress.

Every team has a pitcher have a stint or two on the DL every year, it’s baseball, it happens.

But the Mets are not that lucky. They are nothing like “every team”.

Once the injuries started this year, they did not stop.

Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Yoenis Cespedes, Neil Walker, Jeurys Familia, Asdrubal Cabrera.

I will stop there because the list of people who have not spent time on the DL is drastically shorter.

It is important to note that Team Captain and clubhouse leader David Wright might never play baseball again. Perhaps that finally hit the Mets this year causing the rapid decline, but… who knows.

Would it be fair to solely blame injuries for the Mets’ current situation?

Blaming Ray Ramirez (just Google his name) is the easiest, first, and the quickest thing to blame for the Not So Mazin’ season.

Yes, torn hamstrings and constant muscle issues are mostly on him. And those type of injuries have hit the Mets at an alarming and unfair pace this year.

But it is time to face the reality.

Injuries have destroyed the Mets and prevented them from putting the best team on the field night in and night out.

But there has been some other factors that are leading to the struggles this year.

The MLB is a “next man up” mentality. If it wasn’t then no one could win the World Series.

That is where the Mets have also failed to succeed.

It is not form a lack of effort.

Yes, scoring 4 total runs in a 3 game home series vs the Dodgers seems like no one is trying but they are, it is just not showing.

Familia went down with an injury, Addison Reed became closer and stepped up before he got traded. 

But after that, the bullpen was often misused, overused, and abysmal.

The infield is  stacked with injuries, but also with depth. But this too, is mismanaged.

The infield is not terribly bad, but bizarre to say the least.

Recently, the Mets have long time shortstop Jose Reyes at second, other long time shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera at third, a shortstop in Amed Rosario at shortstop, and an outfielder Jay Bruce sometimes at first.

It isn’t exactly the worst thing, but it is not ideal. Ill give Terry Collins credit for having some kind of plan but will not give him credit for the execution of the plan.

Note that this lineup has been and will continue to shuffle around every night. That is just silly season baseball.

TJ Rivera is a solid hitter and a decent fielder. He is also versatile. He, naturally, went down with an injury, a partially torn UCL in his elbow.

But a sporadic lack of effort from some of the players, bad Sunday home blowouts to end the weekends off more bitter, and lack of execution are other and probably just as big reasons to blame.

Giving a glass half full approach to this whole situation is difficult, but not impossible.

The Mets are now well under .500, they will be lucky to even finish close to .500.

One way to look at it is that even if the Mets were winning and had a better record, would it still be

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good enough to be in the playoffs?

The Nationals have been destroying everybody, the Cubs revived themselves to a comfortable playoff spot, the Dodgers might be the best National League team ever let alone this season, and the Rockies and Diamondbacks have been sitting pretty atop the Wild since well before the All-Star break.

So, yeah, the Mets would obviously be better off winning a ton of games. Any other take would be irrational and utter nonsense.

But it does raise the question of how good would good enough be? This can only be assessed when the final pitch is thrown in the regular season.

They would probably have to be even better then last year, and like mentioned before 3 years in row of making the playoffs? Nice, but with a lack of help from outside factors is it really difficult.

So, if you are looking for a reason to be optimistic, there is a potentially a decent reason.

Another perk of the Mets’ current situation is Amed Rosario. Dominic Smith, Michael Conforto, and the youth movement.

It is floating around that Smith is expected to be called up before September so we will count him.

Amed is the de-facto shortstop of the future and he is here.

Michael Conforto continues to showcase his ability to play any position he wants in the outfield. That is just just without the amazing offense.

So, being bad is not ideal.

But, I for one, do not think the Mets are rebuilding.

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They didn’t clean house.

Terry Collins is still manager.

Sandy Alderson is still GM.

They didn’t trade away any high paid stars.

They showed no classic signs of being rebuilding team.

Yes, they have underperformed.

Yes, they got bombarded with a plethora of injures often, early, and consistently.

But these are two things that can be recovered from.

The holes they need to fill (aside from injuries) they filled.

They need a first basemen after choosing to part ways with Lucas Duda. Well, Dominic Smith is allegedly on his way to see if he can be the guy for 2018.

They needed a shortstop to replace the aging Jose Reyes. Well, Amed Rosario is starting already.

The rotation needs be better consistently and healthy. Well, next year is a new year.

If the Mets suffer a immensely next year as well, then they can reevaluate from there.

At this point, no matter how much worse things get, through what may be considered a fluke, their fault, not their fault, whatever take you have on the situation.

Realize this, the Mets are coming off of two consecutive playoff seasons.

The Mets have a ton of things that are going wrong this year.

The Mets need to keep grinding,play better, keep having awesome give aways to get fans to the ball park, build to see what assets they have in their farm system, and get healthy.

We are all going to send out our rage tweets, turn off our televisions, root for the Nationals to lose out of pure spite, the whole nine yards.

I am just as quick as anybody to panic and immediately call for rebuild, firings, and blame anything I can.

But let’s take a deep breath and read the finer lining.

The Mets could bounce back and have a fine 2018.

They just need to utilize what they have now, be smart, spend the right amount of money, keep the right pieces put, and not let this bad season destroy what has been and could potentially be special.

Next: New York Yankees 40-Man Roster Series: Impending Free Agents

I am not predicting World Series or bust in 2018 and I’m not justifying being a flat out struggling baseball team.

I am, however trying to stay calm and really think about if its officially time to panic and say “classic old Mets” because that may be kind of a stretch.

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