What a strange question, you say? Not strange at all. A big question looms: What’s best for the franchise in the long run? One answer is taking a page from the Orioles’ book.
One of the most dramatic moves MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made when he took the position was to add two wild-card teams. Manfred attempted to make baseball like hockey and basketball by adding another team in the playoffs. So now MLB has division winners and three wild-card teams in the postseason. Manfred moved to create interest in cities to watch the pennant race, not to mention provide hope that anything could happen in September and October.
But at what cost? Are we rewarding mediocrity? Manfred seems like Oprah Winfrey, rewarding everyone with a free car out of the goodness of her heart.
And this is where the Mets enter the conversation. After a hideous 9-19 May that had them at 24-30, they’ve gone 15-6 in June to get back to .500. More importantly, NYM is in the middle of the wild-card race, one game out of the third spot.
Credit the Mets for not mailing it in, but Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns must wonder if being back in the wild-card race is such a great thing. How so? He has to be realistic in knowing that the Amazins are not a championship team but a playoff team in the name of mediocrity. Sure, they can get hot in October, like the Diamondbacks and Rangers did last year, and could even get into the World Series. But what about this roster strikes anyone as a championship team? This rotation featured plenty of No. 4 starters. Outside of Christian Scott, who scares anyone? As great as the bullpen is, does anyone trust them when it matters? How about the lineup that strikes out often?
Yes, they are winning, but this team can quickly lose 10 of 12 after winning 15 of 19. And the clock is ticking. The Mets have until July 30 for Stearns to decide between buying or selling. Common sense says he could build this team from the ground up rather than hold on to the players. He could trade Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz, Luis Severino, Brandon Nimmo, and others to replenish the farm system, build around prospects, and restructure this organization. The logic of doing that is straightforward. The Mets could make a turnaround sooner rather than later, just as the Orioles did–a team that went from multiple 100-loss seasons to a championship contender.
So, is it worth it to make the playoffs as a wild-card team and then go out in the first round? Going for it with this roster only makes sense if the Metropolitans make the playoffs and go on a postseason run. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.
Hopefully, Stearns understands that there’s a recipe for sustainable success and that this roster isn’t built for that. Just look back to a couple of years ago when a 101-win Mets team choked on winning the division to settle for being a wild-card team, and then they lost to the Padres in the wild-card round.
But let’s not act as though Sterns is deciding independently what he wants to do. Even if he knows what he wants to do, Mets owner Steve Cohen may have a different perspective. For one thing, Cohen thinks and acts like a fan, while Stearns thinks/acts like an executive with the bigger picture in mind. Besides, the Mets owner would love to see his team make the playoffs: that would expand fan interest, generate playoff revenue, and make him look good as an owner.
But Sterns has to be careful. Consider what happened to the Los Angeles Angels last season. After a nice run, they acquired Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez from the Chicago White Sox to convince Shohei Ohtani to stay with the team. The moves fizzled. The Angels went on a seven-game losing streak immediately after the trades and never recovered. Worse yet, Ohtani signed with the Dodgers.
The Mets are in the same situation, with Alonso becoming a free agent this offseason. There’s no guarantee he will be back, mainly because Stearns doesn’t seem like a general manager who offers a massive contract to a soon-to-be 30+-year-old player. So, do we have a situation where Stearns would like to trade Alonso and get value in return, while Cohen would like to win with the Mets star? And let’s face it: you can apply the same calculation to others on the current Mets roster.
The challenge is that the more the Mets keep winning, the more pressing it becomes to decide on the preferred approach, as difficult as that may be. It only becomes easy if the June-style Mets revert to the May-style team. Then, Stearns starts a fire sale with relatively few questions.
So, while it’s fun and games now–with Mets fans embracing Grimace as the team’s rallying cry–the only path that makes sense (and it’s why baseball execs make big money) is for Sterns to do what’s best in the long run for this franchise.
Stay tuned.
