During Spring Training, Buck Showalter has made it a point to bring Keith Hernandez down to the field. In fact, as reported by Bob Klapisch of nj.com, Showalter removed the old rule which banned Hernandez from the batting cages. Showalter made it a point to get rid of the dumb rule (which was explained away because Hernandez was a part of SNY).
Specifically, Showalter noted, “I wanted people to notice Keith next to me and it wasn’t by coincidence. To me, Keith Hernandez is Mets royalty. He can go wherever he wants around here. This is his team.”
Showalter is exactly right here. After all, Hernandez was the first captain in team history. That 1986 team constantly talks about how much Hernandez meant to that team in terms of his leadership and defense. To keep that away from the team is pure and utter Wilpon nonsense. Well, the Wilpons are gone and so is much of their stupidity.
This was something Bobby Valentine had done so well during his Mets tenure. We didn’t just see the Mets greats pass through Spring Training for a photo op and media attention. That is something we will see this Spring with Mike Piazza, Al Leiter, David Wright, and others passing through and working with the players for a day or so.
Valentine had taken it a step further than that. Valentine put Mookie Wilson on his coaching staff. We also saw it with him having Al Jackson, an original Met just inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame, on his coaching staff. There many be many reasons why Valentine did that, and it could very well be because Davey Johnson once did the same thing with him and Bud Harrelson on the Mets coaching staff.
Being a Met is different than being a part of any other team. It’s being the big market target while sitting in the shadow of the Yankees. It’s having a fan base who clings to Tug McGraw‘s “Ya Gotta Believe!” who also expects Tom Glavine to implode completing the collapse. We know Gary Carter is going to start an improbable rally while fully expecting Lucas Duda to throw it nowhere near Travis d’Arnaud.
The Mets are the most unique team in all of sports, and they have the fanbase to match. Each and every player who has come through here fully understands it. After all, Carlos Beltran went from reviled while playing here to a standing ovation at the All Star Game wearing the enemy St. Louis Cardinals uniform and fans who cheered him as a conquering hero when he was brought back as the manager.
Valentine knew all of this, and he had a coaching staff reflect that. Showalter seems to get that as well, and he wants the former Mets to be a part of this team both in Spring Training and beyond. He understands the team history, and in the end, Showalter just implicitly gets it.
When the Mets have a manager who gets what being a New York Met is all about, magic happens. We saw it in 1986 and 1999. Mookie brought home Ray Knight. Robin Ventura hit a grand slam single. Seeing how Showalter is managing this team, Mets fans should be ready to see what is coming next.
The Major League Baseball rules coming out of the lockout and new Collective Bargaining Agreement keep getting more and more absurd. We keep moving away from the challenge and strategy of the game, which makes it great, to participation trophy nonsense rule changes.
The shift had an impact on the game. It made it more difficult for pull only hitters to get on base. It seemed batters were unwilling or unable to adjust. Instead of teams investing in players like Jeff McNeil, who supposedly had that all fields approach and get the ball in play game MLB supposedly wanted, they are banning the shift.
After the implementation of the universal DH, they made a special rule just for Shohei Ohtani. If Ohtani wants to continue hitting in games after he has been removed, great news; he can! For the first time in history a player lifted from a game can now stay in the game.
They are also bringing back the ghost runner or Manfred man. We all thought we were done with the runner on second in extra innings, but we are not. That is here to stay because we don’t want to keep using pitchers. After all, we can’t penalize teams who want to bullpen games or keep going to their pen all of the time. That wouldn’t be fair to ask teams to fully develop pitchers and have to strategize past that one game.
Oh, and we also have more postseason teams. After all, it’s not fair that only five teams per league make the playoffs. Oh, and a winner-take-all game for two teams who didn’t win their division also wasn’t fair. They now get to play and be a part of a series.
There’s more nonsense in the rule changes, and there is certainly more on the way. In the end, this isn’t good for the game, but this is what happens when you put people in charge who don’t care.
The Brooklyn Nets season has been altered because then Mayor Bill DeBlasio instituted a COVID19 vaccine mandate for private employers. As a result, Kyrie Irving was only permitted to play in road games. What made the rule obtuse was road players who had not been vaccinated could play in Brooklyn.
However, the rules are the rules. The same goes for when the indoor vaccine mandates were lifted with the private employer ones in place. As a result, Irving could attend Nets games, but he could not play in them.
Of course, the easy answer would be for Irving to get the vaccine. That goes without saying, but we also know he isn’t. More than that, we do know there are going to be baseball players who do not have the vaccine. With the vaccine mandates still in place, yes even for outdoor games played for a private employer, there are potentially going to be New York Mets and New York Yankees players who have not been vaccinated.
As we have seen by and through the reports of Mike Puma of the New York Post, Francisco Lindor, Max Scherzer, Jeff McNeil, and Robinson Cano have been vaccinated. When presented with the question, Jacob deGrom, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, and J.D. Davis declined to answer. Then, there is Jordan Yamamoto, who took a completely different approach to answering the question en route to being the first player optioned to minor league Spring Training:
“It’s a very divisive topic that people use to portray someone as a bad guy or a good person,” Mets Jordan Yamamoto said about vaccines. “That’s why I don’t believe that any of these things should be talked about. It’s one of those topics like abortion…" https://t.co/58dVrkabpu
— Dennis Young (@dpyoung13) March 17, 2022
Now, it is important to note declining to answer is not exactly the same thing as not being vaccinated. Also, as we saw with Aaron Rodgers saying you are vaccinated or “innoculated” doesn’t definitively mean you received the COVID19 vaccine. Moreover, as we saw with Antonio Brown, actually having a vaccine card doesn’t mean you’re vaccinated.
Whatever the case, sooner or later, we will discover which Mets have been vaccinated. If they are, they will be eligible to play games at Citi Field. If they’re not, they can’t, and the Mets are going to have to figure out how exactly to fill their roster spots. Like Irving, the simplest solution is for those players to get vaccinated, and it’s possible those players still might as that mandate does not appear to be getting lifted anytime soon.
After Dominic Smith was passed by Pete Alonso on the depth chart, we weren’t quite sure what the future held for him. After all, he was a National League first baseman who was a backup. Well, starting with the 2019 season things got very interesting with Smith.
In 2019, Smith emerged as a clutch pinch hitter. When there was a number of injuries, he forced his way into the outfield. Unfortunately, he proved to be not great out there, and an injury cost him his chance to stay out there for the remainder of that season. Still, he was around for that ride on his scooter.
In the pandemic 2020 shortened season, Smith appeared to be a star in the making. With the implementation of the universal DH, he forced his way to play first base, and he was great. He posted a 166 wRC+, and really, he cemented himself as a fixture in the Mets lineup.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last a full season. For some reason, Dom just didn’t have it in 2022. There were plenty of reasons and excuses. The juiced ball was gone. Playing left field took its wear and tear. He succeeded in 60 as opposed to 162 games. We also recently discovered Smith played last year with a torn labrum. In all likelihood, it’s a mixture of all of these things and more.
That said, while we should not overreact to anything in Spring Training, we saw and heard Smith might be back on track. That was the case with Smith hitting two homers off of Max Scherzer.
Dom Smith with two bombs off Max Scherzer.
— Metsmerized Online (@Metsmerized) March 16, 2022
It wasn’t just the homers. Certainly, that’s impressive. What was more impressive, and really, more to the point is that Scherzer said Smith hit pitches he had not seen Smith able to hit prior to that particular game. That speaks volumes to Smith not only being healthy, but also to his being ready to start the season ready to get back to the player we thought he was going to be after the 2020 season.
There’s not a universal DH and more opportunities for Smith to play. He’s back to where he was in 2019 where he just has to go out and prove he’s an everyday player. We’ve seen that he is and can be. The Mets would be wise to keep hold of him and have more of these moments for the Mets this season.
During the contentious Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiation, one key point was the implementation of the Steve Cohen Tax. In essence, a fourth tier to the tax was created with minimal movement on the threshold. For some reason, the players accepted the offer.
That was already proven to be catastrophic. That goes double with all the increased revenue MLB will receive as a result of the expansion of the postseason and exclusive deals struck for streaming games. In essence, there’s a lot more money in baseball, no real movement on the CBT thresholds, and no real motivation for teams to spend.
We’re already seeing the fallout of the new CBA.
The Oakland Athletics were in the postseason race last year and would have a better path to the postseason this year. They were in the postseason in 2018 – 2020. Despite that success, they’re tearing it all down. Bob Melvin will now manage the San Diego Padres. Chris Bassitt was traded to the New York Mets. Matt Olson was traded to the Atlanta Braves. Matt Chapman was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. There are more moves on the horizon.
If you think that is bad, look at what the Cincinnati Reds are doing. While the Athletics got big returns in their trades which should help them turnover their roster and return to contention at some point, it’s like the Reds aren’t even trying. They’re just dumping salary, and they appear to be looking to move more money.
Already, the Reds traded Sonny Gray to the Minnesota Twins. They traded Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez to the Seattle Mariners. We may soon see the impossible with the Reds looking to trade Joey Votto. For his part, Votto is disappointed not just in that prospect, but also in the fact this Reds team was in the 2020 postseason and looked to be a move or two away from contention in 2022. They chose the opposite path.
For all those who declared the CBA was a win for fans, they flat out lied. It did nothing to prevent the Athletics and Reds from tearing it down. The Pirates and Marlins will continue to operate with the smallest possible payrolls. We will see other teams fail to go that extra mile. This is all an embarrassment to the game, and MLB fans are owed an apology from MLB.
If in 2019, Jacob deGrom spoke with reporters and said he wasn’t signing an extension but was instead testing the free agent market, New York Mets fan would’ve been in a panic.
The Wilpons never could’ve afforded a bidding war for deGrom. For that matter, they probably had zero interest in one. In all likelihood, it would’ve been the Jose Reyes to the Miami Marlins all over again.
Put another way, deGrom would’ve been gone without an offer, and the Mets would be playing media games. No Mets fan could’ve handled that.
However, now, deGrom announces he’s opting out, and fans are wondering just how much more the Mets will give him. There’s just an implicit trust Steve Cohen and the organization will not let deGrom leave. Certainly, not over money.
After all, we saw the Mets give Max Scherzer $43 million per year to join the rotation despite his being 37. We saw Cohen shrug off the Cohen Tax and announce he’s going over it.
Now, this isn’t to say deGrom returning is a lock. Weird things happen. For that matter, the opt out isn’t an absolute certainty. There’s a lot that can happen during the 2022 season.
What we know is Cohen has the money. We also know deGrom has repeatedly said he wants the chance to spend his entire career with the Mets. Both have the will to make deGrom a lifetime Met.
Because this isn’t the Wilpons, we can have faith it will happen. Because we’ve seen the lengths Cohen is willing to go this offseason, we can trust it will happen.
In many ways, this is the best part of Cohen buying the Mets from the Wilpons. We can believe and trust it will happen.
The New York Mets were the first Major League team to swoop in and take advantage of the Oakland Athletics tear down by obtaining Chris Bassitt for J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller. It was a very strong move for the Mets with Bassitt being a terrific fit for the Mets rotation.
What is interesting with Bassitt is just how overlooked he is. Since 2018, he has a 3.23 ERA, 1.141 WHIP, and a 129 ERA+. His ERA is 17th best in the majors over that time frame. His 4.37 FIP ranks 43rd. His 3.22 K/BB ranks 56th. His 32.78% hard hit rate is good for 30th in the majors.
Going to Baseball Savant, Bassitt is among the best in the majors in limiting hard contact despite not having elite velocity or spin. As noted by Owen McGrattan of Fangraphs, Bassitt does this by how he mixes up his pitches as well as his release points. The overall result is his taking average stuff and having it play as a top of the rotation type of pitcher.
While that may sound a bit incredulous by the aforementioned numbers, keep in mind there are 30 teams in the majors. If you are in the top 60 in any category, you’re pitching at the level of a 1-2 starter. That’s where Bassitt has been. He’s pitching like a number two starter in terms of results. We can dicker about his stuff and natural ability, but the end result is Bassitt pitches like a two starter.
Of course, with the Mets, he’s nowhere near that. He’s a very large step behind Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer because the vast majority of starting pitchers are. There’s not shame in that whatsoever. When healthy, you can argue Carlos Carrasco is one of the best pitchers in baseball. After all, Carrasco was coming off a 153 ERA+ before he was traded to the Mets.
That’s just the thing., Carrasco had an injury riddled season. In each of the last two seasons, deGrom has been nicked up. Taijuan Walker has a lengthy injury history. Scherzer has had good health in his career, but he is also 37. Looking at the Mets rotation, it is both deep and questionable in terms of the ability to get 30 starts from everyone.
It is one thing to have Tylor Megill and David Peterson ready to step into the rotation. That is admirable depth, and it’s all the more admirable with Trevor Williams and Jordan Yamamoto in the mix. However, those are back end of the rotation type of guys. They are not pitchers who can reasonably replicate a top of the rotation starter.
That’s what makes Bassitt so important. By performance, he’s a two starter. However, in this rotation, he’s a number three, and you could argue he’s the fourth starter. When and if an injury occurs, the need to replace a top of the rotation isn’t that much of a concern because the middle to back end of the rotation pitchers on this team are really top to middle pitchers.
The Bassitt acquisition makes this rotation even deeper than it was, and arguably, it makes the Mets rotation the deepest in baseball. When all five of these starters are pitching on the top of their game, something that Jeremy Hefner has helped them do, there is no rotation better in baseball. That’s just how much Bassitt means to this team.