Jacob deGrom And Pete Alonso An Indictment On Brodie Van Wagenen
When Jacob deGrom was officially announced as the 2019 Cy Young Award winner, the New York Mets officially had the Cy Young winner and with Pete Alonso, the Rookie of the Year. With the Houston Astros accomplishing the same feat with Justin Verlander and Yordan Alvarez, it is something which has only happened 14 times in Major League history.
The 2019 Astros won the pennant. When they pulled off the same feat in 2015 with Dallas Keuchel and Carlos Correa, they won the American League Wild Card Game.
The 1983 White Sox had LaMarr Hoyt, Ron Kittle, and the American League West title. The 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers had Fernando Valenzuela and a World Series title. The 1965 Dodgers had Sandy Koufax, Jim Lefebvre, and a World Series title.
That leaves the 1994 Royals (strike shortened season), and the 1976 Padres as the only teams who had a Rookie of the Year and a Cy Young winner to not make the World Series. Digging deeper, things are much worse.
There have been three teams in Major League history who have had a player win a Cy Young and have another player hit 50 homers in a season. The first was the 1961 Yankees who had Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford. The next was the 2001 Diamondbacks who had Luis Gonzalez and Randy Johnson. Both the Yankees and Diamondbacks won the World Series.
Basically, if you have a Cy Young winner and a Rookie of the Year, especially one who hits 50 homers, that team goes to the postseason. Not the 2019 Mets. While they made a late season surge, they ultimately came up short. What makes that all the more inexcusable is they went all in on the 2019 season trading away significant prospects in Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay, Jarred Kelenic, and Simeon Woods Richardson while taking on the very onerous Robinson Cano contract.
That’s to say nothing of the Mets trading away a full year of control of Alonso for two weeks of games without agreeing to a Scott Kingery type of contract or other form of forward thinking.
Anyway you look at it, the 2019 season was a complete failure for the Mets. It’s a sentiment Van Wagenen himself shares. The Mets had the best pitcher, the top rookie, and a host of other good players who had good years, and yet, they missed the postseason. No matter how you look at it, this is an indictment of Van Wagenen.
also, why are you even wasting everybody’s time with this nonsense?
you don’t truly believe BVW is SOLELY responsible for 100% of the construction of the organization because NOBODY could possibly believe such a thing. My 3 year old niece would literally laugh in my face if I suggested such a thing …
And yet: you LITERALLY made that very argument at 1:54 pm earlier today in the comment section.
What’s the point? Who are you trying to fool? Why not argue with people in actual good faith?
I don’t get it
Please stay far away from that child
LOL
just know that I know that you know what a joke that argument is
and it kills you
cuz you KNOW that you are sooooooooo much smarter than that (which is true, btw: you ARE so much smarter/better than that)
You’ve done nothing but troll here
Keep going!
More more more!
OK, I think BVW was a bad hire to begin with. He’s a terrible G.M. The Cano trade alone should get him fired, but let’s face it the Wilpons won’t
won’t. But my friend, You can’t compare this year to an era where there were ten teams in a league or six teams in a division in a 12 team league. And the fan base would’ve killed The Mets had Alonso not broke camp with the team. I’m 59 years old. I don’t know how much more time I have left on this rock, but as much as I’d love another World Series win, the team we have now have talent, depth and a esprit de corps you don’t find in baseball today
The previous eras did have fewer teams making the postseason, and when looking at the modern era, the Astros did it twice recently and made the postseason each time.