The Rewatchables is a podcast about cinema classics like Heat and Rocky III. One of the categories of discussion is, “What happened the next day?” I spent my preseason preview linking the 2023 Mets to Major League. Unfortunately, we don’t need to ask what happened to the Jake Taylor-Ricky Vaughn Cleveland Indians the next day. They would lose to the Chicago White Sox in the American League Championship Series.
The film takes place before the wild card, but a late season winning streak was necessary to catch the New York Yankees. When manager Lou Brown rips off the last piece from the poster of the protagonist team owner, the team celebrates forcing a one-game playoff for the AL East division crown. In reality, the 2023 NL East division crown is all but decided. Atlanta is 30 games above .500 and would need to seriously slip up.
The Mets seriously slipped up in 2007, losing six of their last seven games and the NL East to the Philadelphia Phillies before an extra Wild Card might have helped Willie Randolph keep his job. Taking owner Steve Cohen at his word, GM Billy Eppler and manager Buck Showalter are not losing their job for this season’s subpar results. For those radio show call-in faithful sniffing for blood in the water, wait till the offseason to see if Uncle Stevie is singing the same tune about Mets management.
That is the only way to view the rest of this season - a waiting game until the reset button is pressed in September. I type that because this season is over. The six-game win streak featuring a stellar Kodai Senga 8-inning gem was the last gasp. One that was snuffed out by back-to-back losses in San Diego followed by the same franchise Cohen wants to emulate, effectively ending things with two wins after four-day break.
The offensive dam is still expected to break any day now. The expectation coming into the season was a mimic of last year’s successful offense, one built on batting average and on-base percentage. The 2022 team hit .259, five points behind the league leading Blue Jays. Their OBP of .332 was one point less than league leading Los Angeles. This season, Mookie Betts of those same Dodgers had more hits by himself in two days than the Mets had as a team.
The team-first strategy with hits to the opposite field and making sure to move runners over isn’t overstated enough. The Mets did the little things in 2022, but that was then and this is now. Now, they can’t get out of the way of their own mistakes. They’ve already made 48 errors as a team after making just 67 a year ago. But a year ago, they weren’t starting two rookies in the infield and you can’t plan to win with pitching and defense when neither one is any good.
But any deal you can think of is possible and good to go if worthy. Don’t be fooled by pundits saying that big money contracts will get in the way of Eppler moving players off this roster. That’s the beauty of rooting for the Evil Empire of the 21st century. It’s not just about buying the best available players in the offseason. It’s also the willingness to pay those players to no longer be on the team. It’s already been done to move Eduardo Escobar and acquire reliever Trevor Gott. What makes you think it can’t happen for anyone else?
I’m really rooting for the team to be stripped to the core, keeping one of the high-priced Cy Young Award winning-pitchers only because Eppler didn’t have a suitable dance partner for the other. The one that goes will bring back multiple names. Some we may never see in a future box score because it’s a complete guessing game when it comes to prospects, but the benefit of a deep farm system is knowing another arm is on the way.
The way this season has gone, it could mimic Major League with a group of rag-tag professionals already stuck in a bad season suddenly going on an all-time run. It’s been done by multiple Mets teams before, piling together wins late in August, enough that back pages print in loud letters how the team is making a final push for a playoff position that’s out of reach. That’s the price for playing in New York, the expectations are unrealistic and that’s the truth.
Upcoming series: Chicago White Sox at New York Mets
Tuesday, July 18 - 7:10 pm
Carlos Carrasco (3-3, 5.16 ERA) vs. Lucas Giolito (6-5, 3.45 ERA)
Wednesday, July 19 - 7:10 pm
Justin Verlander (3-5, 3.72 ERA) vs. Touki Toussaint (0-2, 3.38 ERA)
Thursday, July 20 - 1:10 pm
Jose Quintana (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Michael Kopech (3-8, 4.47 ERA)
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