Sure, this season was a disaster for the New York Mets. Going into the season, many expected them to make a strong push for the Wild Card game. Instead, chaos erupted and a frail lineup collapsed under the pressure of several key injuries. But, instead of being completely negative, there are multiple things to be learned from this season. If the Mets are smart, they will take it and its lessons as a learning experience.
There’s never enough rotation depth
Going into the season, the Mets were expected to have one of, if not the strongest, rotations in all of baseball. Then, the injury bug bit them. Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Matt Harvey, and Zach Wheeler, 4/5 of the Mets rotation, missed significant time during the season. The Mets were forced to pull pitchers from all places, which ended up harming the effectiveness of the rotation. The team ERA sits at 4..98, which is the third-worst in the league. This goes to show that there is never enough rotation depth, because you never know when your rotation will crumble to bits.
Stretching before games is important
While it has been drilled into our heads since our youth athletics days, stretching is important before and after games. While a lot more than stretching played into the injury epidemic that plagued the Mets this season, there must be a problem with how the training staff prepares the team. Players like Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto shouldn’t become injured by simply running or swinging a bat.. Whether it is in the off-season training or pre-game preparation, players simply should not be injured at the rate that the Mets injured themselves in 2017. The team should look at that heading into 2018 to try to prevent it from happening again.
Players don’t always know what’s best for them
Back in April, Syndergaard was regarded as one of the most dominant pitchers in the MLB, and his attitude and personality reflected it. When Syndergaard felt something strange in his throwing arm, he refused an MRI on his arm, insisting that he was fine. During his next start, he tore his lat. Letting Syndergaard make his own decision was obviously a misplay for the Mets, as they let one of their best players injure himself. If they didn’t learn their lesson from that, then it has to be questioned if they are capable of running themselves as a team.
Trade before the non-waiver deadline
The Mets made several trades during the 2017 season, but most of them were after the July 31st non-waiver deadline. Why the Mets waited so long is unclear. It ended up hurting them, as they received weak returns on impact players like Jay Bruce and Curtis Granderson. They should have traded them prior to July 31st, because they most likely would have seen higher return values.
As the saying goes, you live and you learn. While 2017 is seen as a lost season by many, I say that it should be considered anything but. Why would you not take lessons from the disaster? Who’s to say the Mets won’t bounce back next season? After all, the Twins lost over 103 games in 2016, and look at them now. Anything is possible.
But most teams who were in contention for a playoff spot knew that the Mets were in a fragile situation and not dealing from a position of strength. Besides this was a salary dump plain and simple. There was talk that the Yankees were looking for a replacement for their injured first base man but nothing ever materialized? Why? Just the fact that the team allowed Thor to make a medical decision is beyond words. Incompetence. From top to bottom. And it appears they may be all coming back in 2018. If Collins comes back nothing will change. Seven years is enough.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I seem to recall that there was no interest in Bruce and Grandy prior to July 31.
On “rotation depth,” I’m not totally buying the old cliche that you can’t have too much pitching. There’s room for five starters. My conclusion on 2017 was that you’ve got to have talent and depth at the AAA level. There was nobody at Las Vegas, zippo, and there was no backup plan.
Sandy never reacted when the troubles arise. He made half-hearted stabs at the waiver wire. I felt he had given up by early June.
I can’t blame anyone for Conforto’s injury. Seems like a cheap shot.
The waiver wire stuff also misses the point. Every trade was designed to dump salary, so the options were few and far between. This is an ancient problem with the organization. If Mets were willing to pick up some salary in these deals — say, 50% — the club would have gotten more interest and received better prospects in return. This was entirely about putting short-term dollars in the Wilpons’ pockets.
They are gross. They forced out Doubleday and bought Mets when the club was valued at less than $400 million. Today it’s estimated by Forbes as a $2 billion property. Disgusting, indifferent owners who have not addressed the NY fans since the 2015 WS. They are fine with all this.