Mets’ fans’ worst-case scenario for 2024 is playing to script

Well, at least it is for one Mets fan I could name.

Back in March, some clown wrote that this 2024 season would be a mystery, that we couldn’t really gauge how it would play out at that early juncture. The way this team was constructed, in the aftermath of the scorched-Earth summer of 2023, seemed odd. It looked and felt like a team in flux, without a real direction, other than a “not that” again reaction to 2023’s big spending — for which they are still paying. That was where they started from, in early March when hope, supposedly, springs eternal. That was before injuries to the starting pitching staff – an admittedly thin area to begin with – put them in hole to start the season. The commensurate strain on the bullpen, while not evident at first, has begun to show. The offense, whose numbers appear respectable has consistently come up short in big spots. To wit: the game yesterday (May 11), vs. the Atlanta Braves and attended by yours truly, featured zero New York hits until J.D. Martinez’s two-out-nobody-on first pitch homer in the ninth. The fact that a walk and another single brought Brett Baty to the plate representing the tying run did little to mollify the restive crowd, while we had to put up with the braying of the all-too-many Atlanta faithful in attendance.

These Mets can’t even get history right.

They came in with the thinnest margin for error imaginable. They’ve now basically erased it. This is similar to how Roger Angell described the Mets of the early ‘70s: “They are like a jeweled timepiece that works either perfectly, or not at all.” They currently find themselves two games below the .500 mark, nine games back of the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies – whose fans also bray and are closer to local, in case you didn’t know – and seven games behind the Braves. I know, I know: there’s a lot of season left and you can’t make snap judgments on May 12, and yaddayaddayadda, but what we’re seeing ain’t great. It would be terrific if the Mets could somehow jump in and catch the vibe of the other teams still currently engaged in this town.

Hockey’s New York Rangers and the basketball Knicks are putting on some serious moves in their respective playoff series. The Rangers hold a 3-1 lead over the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL Eastern Conference semi-finals while the Knicks are up 2-1 over the Indiana Pacers in the same round, over in the NBA. These teams are seriously evoking the “Fun City” spirit of 1969, when the Mets, Knicks, and football Jets all came away with hugely unlikely Championships and the Rangers brought themselves back to respectability after years in a frozen wilderness. It’s tough to see the 2024 Mets getting a piece of that action right now. They just don’t appear to have the horses. It was thought that Martinez’s signing would give the offense a shot in the arm, as he worked to get himself ready after his extremely late Spring Training signing. He’s been here nearly a month, and his first homer came yesterday. The pitching, weakened by the absences of Kodai Senga, David Peterson and Tylor Megill has gotten two strong starts from phenom Christian Scott, though he was victimized by the longball in yesterday’s 4-1 loss. Sean Manaea and Luis Severino have been pleasant surprises, and the bullpen has been stalwart most of the year, but this is where the good news ends. It wouldn’t appear that this is good enough or close enough to contention to warrant bringing in reinforcements at the trade deadline: why deal off assets when you’re nowhere near close to running with the big boys – unless it’s to have a rerun of July/August 2023 and send away players like Manaea, Severino or, God forbid, Pete Alonso to further restock the farm system. As has been said elsewhere, the David Stearns/Steve Cohen brain trust has done a good job of tempering fans’ expectations and point them towards a brighter 2025. Promises, promises. Great for the overall health of the franchise, but in this moment, it kinda sucks. “Wait ‘til next year!” got the Dodgers exactly one Championship in Brooklyn. Waiting ‘til next year is great for the kids, but as more than a few fans age and the 38-year-long afterglow of 1986 dims considerably, some feel like they don’t have that kind of time. When will this year be next year again?

We all want to know.

I usually try end by pieces with a pithy one-liner like that, but today I will end with a quote form our favorite broadcaster, Ralph Kiner:

“Well, it’s Mother’s Day out here at Shea Stadium, so to all you mothers out there, Happy Birthday!”