New York Mets: Who is to Blame for disastrous 2018 season?
Somehow, someway, the New York Mets are back in the basement of the National League.
The New York Mets are terrible. No one would have believed that would be the case in the middle of June if you had told them that on April 15th.
The Mets were 12-2. Fans were making preparations for an early November parade.
Yet, here they are. A team wasting away good start after good start, with the end result seemingly predetermined as a loss from the first pitch.
Mets fans have placed the blame for this disaster on anyone and everyone, so let’s examine the culprits.
The first to examine is manager Mickey Callaway.
Callaway is getting a sense of what being on the wrong side of Mets fans feels like. He can’t seem to do anything right, as when his pitchers succeed, his batters fail, and vice versa.
Overall, Callaway has done about the most he can with this roster. However, he is not the one to blame.
The best thing that Callaway can do from this point forward is to continue to tinker with the lineup in the hope that something eventually clicks.
The next culprit is General Manager Sandy Alderson.
Alderson has seemingly been getting the most blame from Mets fans. They are frustrated over his lack of substantial additions to the offseason.
Yes, Alderson added Todd Frazier, Adrian Gonzalez, Jay Bruce and Anthony Swarzak. That is exactly what the problem is.
Adding players already past their prime is not exactly a great formula for success. Especially in an age where baseball continues to become younger and younger.
However, Alderson is not truly the one to blame. He does what he can with the cards he is dealt.
This leads me to my ultimate culprit for the Mets ineffectiveness: Fred and Jeff Wilpon.
It is harder to find worse owner’s in all of professional sports than Fred and Jeff Wilpon.
Perhaps James Dolan is worse, but the Wilpon’s are a very close second.
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I am not even going to get into how Major League Baseball has let it slide that one of their owner’s fell into a Ponzi scheme trap. That alone could fuel another 5-10 articles.
The effect’s of that colossal mistake of trusting Bernie Madoff has led the Mets to where they are today.
Last season, the Mets had a chance to shorten any rebuilding effort by dealing their veterans for prospects that teams around the league were willing to deal in the hopes for a championship run.
Instead, the Wilpon’s focused on salary relief in exchange for veterans Jay Bruce, Neil Walker, Curtis Granderson, Lucas Duda, and Addison Reed.
The only players brought back were lower level relievers, some barely even having the potential to be called a prospect.
What did the Wilpon’s do with the money they saved in salary relief?
They stuck it in their pockets.
They need the cash to pay off the major debt resulting from the Madoff crisis.
There was no major reinvestment into the team, only minor investments that helped quiet the fans for the time being.
Those minor investments have now caught up to the Mets, as the team is now on a nonstop trip towards meaningless September baseball.
The Wilpon’s are more concerned with covering their Madoff mistake rather than putting a winning team on the field.
Don’t expect them to sell the team soon either. Their ego will stop them from recuperating their losses in a sale of their most prized asset.
Next: Landing Spots in potential deGrom trade
Unless Rob Manfred’s office steps in and pushes them out, the Wilpon’s aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. That is going to be a problem.