Right now we all have an open wound from the sting of our disappointing Wilcard game loss. But given a little time and perspective, we will all look back on this season fondly.
Coming off a 2015 World Series appearance and armed with the best young pitching staff in baseball, plus the return of Yoenis “Lion King” Cespedes, we all had sky high expectations in spring training. This writer pegged us at a 100-win season and World Series win and felt so confident that he plunked down a wager on12-1 odds before the season started. Who knew, that this would turn out to be a snake bitten season, similar to 2009.
Every so often a team has a year where injuries derail the season. Only a funny thing happened with this bruised and battered team. They refused to give up.
Look closely at the team photo here. This is far from the 40-man roster that finished the season with 87 wins and improbably earned a Wildcard spot in the playoffs.
With 4/5 of our vaunted rotation spending time on the DL (they made a combined 93 starts out of 162 and many of them were of the playing-through-pain variety), the ageless Bartolo Colon gave us 15 wins, ace-of-the-moment Noah Syndergaard gave us 218 strikeouts. and we got a remarkable 15 starts from Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo (combined 9-4, 2.56 ERA). The bullpen, the lone area to remain reasonably healthy (aside from Jim Henderson), gave us a team record 51 saves from Jeurys Familia and a team record 40 holds from Addison Reed.
The lineup and defense were equally decimated by injuries (David Wright, Lucas Duda, Juan Lagares, Travis d’Arnaud, Wilmer Flores, Yoenis Cespedes, etc.) as well as disappointing seasons from d’Arnaud, Michael Conforto, and mid-season acquisition Jay Bruce. We also witnessed some epic slumps from guys who had good seasons overall, like Walker, Cespedes, Flores and Bruce. But we got a great year from our new shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, saw the unlikely return of leadoff hitter Jose Reyes and got big seasons, when healthy, out of Cespedes and Walker. Curtis Granderson, who had a bad first half, turned on the jets for the stretch run and Wilmer Flores had a helpful hot streak over the summer. We also got unlikely contributions on defense from catcher Rene Rivera and James Loney, and on offense from TJ Rivera, Kelly Johnson, and Justin Ruggiano.
Despite all the criticisms about his in-game decision making, Terry Collins kept this team focused and motivated through a lot of adversity. Knowing how much heart this team has and how much returning talent we’ll have in 2017, you have to feel good about the Mets. This team has made the playoffs two years in a row, has a nice core of talent and, finally, a culture of winning.
There are a lot of roster decisions to be made as we build a winner for 2017. Stick with Mets360 for a big hot stove season.
I would have liked to have gotten another crack at the Cubs in the NLDS.
Ah, who am I kidding – what I really wanted was a chance to play the Nationals in a 7-game series and get some hits with RISP.
OK, OK, I admit it. What I really wanted was a return trip to the World Series to avenge last season’s loss there.
But I think we’ll still remember 2016 fondly.
Ha, yes, my feelings exactly.
The disappointment is not bitter, but I’d hoped for more.
Because you never Ynoa!
I’ll be rooting for the Cubs and Indians from here out. Their fans are due a WS win. Otherwise, I will root hard against the Nationals. And I can’t wait for a Mets team at full-strength next year to beat the snot out of them.
We did better than the Royals!!!
Unless you root for the one team who wins the last game of the season you always would wish for something more. That only makes sense. But I found this team special, and when I look back I suspect I might remember more about 2016 than 2015.
The World Championships come first for me, but after that I always ranked 1973 and 1999 ahead of all of the other years. Some years are just more fun, and these last six weeks have been a blast.
Looking forward to the rest of the postseason I want the Cubs wiped out as quickly as possible. Other than that I don’t really care.
Very hard not to be proud of this team. I had 24 hours to grieve and then got over it. Dam Mad Bum was just too much. However, it showed that the Mets must have offense to work with their returning vaunted pitching staff, which could now be up to 8 deep in starters when you add Gsellman and Lugo. That is killer depth. The BP was very good as well, I know Familia gave up that winner, but it was the 2nd homer he gave up all year ! If Mets keep Salas, they have a good 7,8,9 squad to hold leads. Keeping Yo is going to be a key. I don’t think Mets keep Bruce, need that $ for Yo and have Conforto ready to play everyday. Hopefully Neil Walker is reasonable in his demands coming back from surgery and Mets keep him too on a friendly type deal. If not, I am a big fan of TJ Rivera and he gets the job. Captain David ? Who knows, but Mets have Reyes and Flores ready to return. Duda will be back at first and looking to build toward a big contract after next year (it won’t be with the Mets with D. Smith in the wings). The one big transaction this year will be at catcher. Travis is a goner, I believe, and Plawecki may be too. Mets need and will get a frontline starting catcher and keep Rene Rivera, who did a great job. It will be a helluva battle in 2017 for the East Division, but I see Mets with a big year if they get all of the pitchers back. Probably not “all” and why they need to keep Colon, who still probably has enough to become the winningest latino pitcher in history. He is motivated to get that title and it should be done as a Met. Thanks Mets for 2016, it was fun and it was full of pride.
Duda, Wright, Walker—3 back problems…3 Backend Players… I’m stuck with one…I’ll pass on the otehr 2
I praise the 2016 Mets for achieving what they did in spite of devastating injuries.The players would not give up and the manager kept them focused on the task at hand. Going into the season, it had become apparent that Alderson had built an elite team that would unfortunately never achieve their full capability yet they were good enough to finish fourth and make the playoffs at the seasons end. I can’t wait until next year!
I was at the Wild Card game and while it was the most emotionally draining game of my life, I would relive it over and over again.
I was on edge every pitch, standing for every strikeout opportunity, leading every chant and celebrating with strangers around me.
The wild card loss stings, but making the playoffs in consecutive seasons – with all the injuries – is something to continue building on. Now when Sandy says he needs to tinker, not blow it up, it’s not just spin.