No one ever asks Santa what he wants for Christmas. Rest assured, this Santa already has received his gifts, with no one from the triumvirate of Robinson Cano, Brodie Van Wagenen or Jeff Wilpon darkening any Mets hallways this upcoming season.
And in a weird way, there may be another thing that went “right” here since the season ended. The Mets traditionally have a holiday party, where players dress up as Santa and his elves and hand out presents. It seems like maybe this was a Covid casualty. It was a great thing for the organization to do and it seems more than likely that Steve Cohen will do something to benefit kids in a healthy, responsible way. But the Santa jinx had replaced the Sports Illustrated jinx as a dreaded curse. With no one playing Santa, the Mets have one fewer obstacle to their success in 2021.
So, what do you want this Christmas? Let’s cut to the chase and instead of giving gifts to each and every one of you, we’ll give gifts to your favorite millionaire ballplayers, things that will make their upcoming seasons go better than you could even imagine. With the power of the keyboard, here are my gifts to Mets players.
Pete Alonso – A BABIP in road parks equal to his mark in Citi Field. Last year he had a .292/.194 split.
Michael Conforto – A year free from any and all injuries.
J.D. Davis – A return of the missing 78 points of ISO to his season line.
Jacob deGrom – A seamless transition with his new catcher
Edwin Diaz – A BB/9 rate closer to 2018 rather than last year’s 4.9 mark
Jeurys Familia – Three times as many low-leverage appearances as high-leverage ones.
Andres Gimenez – All of his starts to come at shortstop.
Luis Guillorme – For fans to acknowledge that in his last 111 PA, he has a .326/.422/.467 line.
Guillermo Heredia – To be as lucky in the batter’s box as Jake Marisnick was last year.
Seth Lugo – 30+ starts and 25 appearances with clean first two innings.
Steven Matz – A season where he doesn’t throw any pitches middle-middle.
Trevor May – A league-average rate on HR/FB.
James McCann – A year without a bounced throw to second base on a SB attempt.
Jeff McNeil – To hit HR all year, not just in one week.
Tomas Nido – A copy of the McCann 2019-20 handbook to success.
Brandon Nimmo – For fans to realize that 4-win players don’t grow on trees.
David Peterson – To have his 2020 success against the Braves versus the entire league.
Amed Rosario – To embrace his role as a platoon player.
Dominic Smith – For MLB to (shudder) adopt the universal DH
Marcus Stroman – A return to a GB/FB ratio greater than 3.0
Noah Syndergaard – A willingness to move batters off the plate once he returns to the mound.
*****
Luis Rojas – For the new people feeding him information to make better macro decisions so he looks like an improved in-game manager.
Jared Porter – To be as successful in the MLB Draft as his two predecessors.
*****
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of the readers here at Mets360! I’m very happy that you come to our site on a daily basis. And I’d like to give an extra special thanks to loyal readers Bob P., Metsense, TJ, Mike W, Dan Capwell, NMK, Boomboom, Peter, Remember1969, footballhead, Name, Jose, Edwin e Pena, NYM6986, Rob, HOF19, John From Albany, Eraff, David Klein, Hobie, Steve S., Herb G, Steevy and anyone I may unintentionally be forgetting. Your contributions add to the site and make us all better writers. And finally, thanks to all of the writers at the site. May you have a wondrous holiday season. And may we play a 162-game regular season.
And to Brian:
* A safe and happy holiday season and 2021.
* A new pen with a full ink tube (keyboard?) to continue to generate the outstanding work that has been a standard on this site for 11 years.
* A Mets team that is a joy to write about and not a middle of the road organization that warrants articles of complaint. Success at every level is all I ask 🙂
Keep up the great work! I have very much enjoyed conversing with all of you.
Merry Christmas, all
It could be a fun 2021 season for us.
Looking forward to another year of great Mets discussion here! Happy Holidays to all!
Brian,
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and all others at the site. Good health and safety to everyone. Your labors and those of all contributors make it fun to be a Met fan, despite the history of pain and suffering that entails.
Ah, the lovely Anna Benson, hoping she has overcome her issues and found some peace.
Regarding the list, I’ll add –
– Mr. Familia, strike one and walk rate improvement of Mr. Diaz
– Mr. DeGrom a continued extension of peak seasons based on his right arm being 3 years younger than the rest of his body
– Mr. Nimmo 450 AB is a super deep roster
– Mr. Lugo a return to bullpen dominance due to a rotation overcrowded with quality arms (sorry Seth)
– Mr. Matz the ability to repeat the same motion over and over regardless of the pitch
My Christmas wish list in this order would be springer, Bauer, Lindor, Hendrick’s/hand, Ordorizzi
My wish list would be Springer, Odorizzi, LeMahieu or Suarez, Snell or Castillo.
Happy Holidays to all and thanks to Brian for this site.
We already had our best Christmas gift with the Wilpons in the rear view mirror. Wishing you Brian and all the contributors here on Mets 360 a safe and happy holiday. As for outside of Mets 360 may we all be safe and take care of each other. Thoughts and prayers for those who will not be with us for these holidays.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the Mets360 team! This is one of the few “must read” fan-based sites left on the Internet. Thanks for all you do!
Happy holidays to you, Brian, all of the other writers and all of the readers. You all make it so great to be a part of this site.
Happy holidays Brian and thanks for making this all work. When my wife says “what are you writing” I reply I’m part of a blog with passionate, knowledgeable and loyal Met fans and we are cautiously very happy at what 2021 might bring.
Thanks to everyone who writes their view point that spurs the next conversation. And thanks for making this blog something I look forward to every day.
My wish is to be able to attend games at Citi Field in the spring. Steve Cohen is our Santa Claus and the presents under the tree are May, McCann, Springer?, a good starting pitcher and maybe a few more goodies in the stocking for the bullpen and bench.
Happy Holidays!