Jonathan Villar, Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto went 0-12 with 5 Ks. In a related story, the Mets lost, again. Hey, at least it wasn’t one run this time around, as they dropped a 5-3 decision to the Phillies, their fifth-straight setback.
Brandon Nimmo had a triple and a homer. Jeurys Familia didn’t give up a run. Carlos Carrasco gave up a run in the first inning but that lowered his season-long, first-inning ERA.
See, it wasn’t all bad.
Since we are doing a positive spin on things, the Mets are a mere 10 percentage points behind Colorado for the tenth draft pick, but Detroit is still between them in the standings. If the Mets can secure the 10th pick, they will have the 10 and 11 pick in the first round and both will be protected from forfeit should they sign a free agent that refused a qualifying offer.
Further good news is that by finishing with an adjusted for luxury tax payroll of $202,113,255, the Mets did not pass the threshold that starts kicking in a tax. Those who claim that one cannot get blood from a stone never met Richard Alderson.
And lastly, for news that really gave me goosebumps, Newsday has this headline in one of its articles:
“Robinson Cano remains a presence, and a voice, for the Mets from afar”.
Oh goodie! Can’t wait to get a 39 year old back who sucked before he got suspended and now hasn’t played in a year. Expect many spring training at bats to “get the timing back” followed by many injuries due to lack of playing and age. Glad to hear that Robbie is still involved and informing the youngins how to get the big bucks in MLB.
Full disclosure: I don’t know what the article says because I refused to pay $1 for a 5 month subscription based on that headline.
There’s coming up short, there’s losing, and then there’s embarrassing performance, that of pretenders as opposed to contenders.
The 2021 Mets are teetering in the realm of embarrassment, once again, which propels them into an off-season with a pretty bad vibe, despite the smiling wealthy SS, the HR exhibition titan, and the best SP in baseball. It will be very interesting to see how the richest owner in baseball reacts, given that his $200 million team hit like the $60 million teams that had rolled over before the games began.
To me, Jeff McNeil will be the most interesting off-season concern.
How do you go from OPS+es of 138, 143 and 130 to one of 85!?
And I wonder what they’ll do with Cano (still owed $40 million!).