Give me a break about being patient!
If only the Mets and their fans could have been that lucky when the Mets owner was runner-up in a bid to own the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mark Walter’s group won the right to own that team in 2012. Instead, Cohen settled for winning the bid to own the New York Mets, which he purchased for $2.4 billion in 2020.
Steve Cohen (photo, NY Post)
I couldn’t help but think about that after the Dodgers swept the Mets in a 10-3 laugher on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field. The Dodgers seem to be on their way to a playoff appearance in 2024, while the 22-33 Mets are on pace to lose 100 games after losing their third straight, seventh in eight games, and 15 of 19 on Wednesday.
This is Year 4 of Cohen, and it hasn’t been what he and Mets fans had in mind when the Mets owner spoke about winning a championship in three to five years. It has been a disappointment and an epic failure, with two losing seasons and one forgettable playoff appearance that ended in a first-round flop. It’s worse than the “Worst Team Money Can Buy” during the M. Donald Grant years.
Under Cohen’s leadership, he has hired and fired several executives and managers, when we thought Cohen would bring stability by hiring the right people. It’s a big reason why Cohen deserves criticism instead of getting a free pass from fans and local media. The Wilpons would have been crucified, but now it’s “Uncle Stevie,” and we’ve been told to be patient.
11/14/23—New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns shakes hands with Carlos Mendoza during a press conference at Citi Field, where Mendoza was introduced as the new manager. (Photo by Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post)
Cohen hired a new administration this offseason, with David Stearns as the Met’s president of baseball operations and Carlos Mendoza as a manager. So far, the team has become an embarrassment under the new management. They can’t hit, field, or pitch. They sure appeared to check out in this homestand and displayed ineptitude against one of the best teams in baseball in all three games this week.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Mets wasted Tylor Megill’s excellent start of seven scoreless innings and nine strikeouts by blowing a 2-0 lead to tie it in the ninth and then taking a 5-2 loss in 10 innings of Game 1 of the doubleheader. They failed to execute a double play three times in the eighth inning and eventually had the Dodgers score a run in the eighth inning. Ottavino could not field a bunt that would get the tying run out at home in the ninth inning. Instead, that misplay had the Dodgers tie the game at 2. Then, in that same inning, the Mets failed to win the game with the bases loaded when Tyrone Taylor hit an infield out for the second out after being ahead on a 3-0 count. Slumping Jeff McNeil popped out in the infield to end the threat. The Dodgers made the Mets pay by scoring three runs in the tenth to win the game.
In Game 2, the Mets went down meekly in taking a 3-0 loss to the Dodgers. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, the Dodgers scored six runs in the eighth inning to take a 9-3 lead. It began when Met-killer Will Smith homered off struggling reliever Adam Ottavino to break a 3-3 tie, and it ended when Shohei Ohtani hit a two-run home run off Jorge Lopez to complete the inning.
Stearns should take the blame for this team’s problems since he’s the president of baseball operations. It’s not his team, but his fingerprints are all over it. He’s the one who has focused on his players to use exit velocity to hit the ball as in hit the ball out of the ballpark, and he built a team that can’t field. He also built an inept pitching staff. Outside of signing Luis Severino as a free agent, Stearns’ offseason moves haven’t impacted the Mets much.
Let’s count the ways, shall we:
√Sean Manaea has been mediocre on the mound at best.
√Adrian Houser has been a bust as a starter.
√Harrison Bader can’t hit.
√Jake Diekman provides no relief.
√Michael Tonkin offers nothing.
Lopez has been such a bust that he’s going to be released. He acted like an idiot on Wednesday, untucking his jersey and throwing his glove over the netting into the crowd after being tossed by third-base umpire Ramon DeJesus for arguing about a check swing on Freddie Freeman. Then Joey Wendle was so bad at hitting that he was released. Oh, and we’ve yet to see Shintaro Fujinami pitch this season. J.D. Martinez has been a bust at the plate, and Taylor has been nondescript. Meanwhile, Shota Imanaga never heard from Stearns, and all he has done is be the best pitcher in the National League for the Chicago Cubs, pitching to a 0.84 ERA and a 6.44 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 53 2/3 innings over his first nine starts.
Stearns was hired to rebuild this team from the ground up, which he’ll get to do starting with the trade deadline and in the next few years. But still, what about him inspires confidence? He wasn’t great running the Milwaukee Brewers, who never went far in the playoffs. Analytical general managers never win many championships. Stearns’ moves this offseason make me wonder if he relies too much on what the computer says about players rather than his intuition. His managerial hiring of Mendoza has been such a joke that the Mets manager has been compared to failed Jets head coach Rich Kotite.
Make no mistake, Cohen put all his faith in Stearns that he was willing to fire a great manager in Buck Showalter to give full autonomy to his new baseball executive. If that doesn’t work, why should anyone trust Cohen to get it right ever again after striking out on executives — Sandy Alderson, Jared Porter (fired after sending lewd text messages to a female journalist when he worked for the Cubs), Zack Scott (fired after being arrested for a DWI charge, found not guilty) and Billy Ep that Cohen struck out on all executives should give Mets fans pause.
We can harp on Mendoza’s work as manager, but that’s irrelevant since he won’t be the manager whenever the Mets become a great team. He was hired to be a caretaker and do what Stearns wanted him to do. It will come down to what Cohen and Stearns do in the long run. This is a team that’s rebuilding for all intents and purposes.
Stearns can say all he wants that it’s too soon to tell about his team, but he wasn’t hired to keep this at the status quo, especially when they signed guys for cheap in the offseason. While we wait to see what those two do, the Mets aren’t in a good place when their season is basically over before school is out for the summer.
The only winner of all this is Showalter, who is being paid not to manage this joke of a franchise. You can say the same for Lopez after being released for his comments about playing for the worst team in baseball.
Mets fans have been stuck with this garbage for a long time, and they deserve much better than that.
