Wasn’t this the exact dynamic Steve Cohen was supposed to change?
All too often under the Wilpons, July 31 was the effective last day of the season for the Mets — or at least the last day in which they did anything relevant.
Trade deadline week is also the week in which you can put a final stamp on a failure of a season, and that is the route the Mets have gone down by putting up a “For Sale” sign that so far has yielded deals for David Robertson and Max Scherzer.
Right now, these look like the same Mets who signed Jason Bay, who never got to the playoffs with Johan Santana, who failed to capitalize on a quintet of young arms with All-Star potential after riding them to the 2015 pennant.
Meanwhile, the Yankees — even an underachieving, uninspired, last-place version of the Yankees — just got the best hitter in baseball back and are playing meaningful baseball as they chase a wild-card spot.
They may not be providing a particularly compelling case to go out and get some players before Tuesday afternoon, but it is at least reason to keep tuning in for the next couple months.
Cohen’s presence alone cannot end the Yankees’ dominance over the city, but universally, it was at least expected to get the Mets level in terms of yearly expectations.
One pretty big piece of that comes from the Yankees almost never being out of a playoff race, even in down years.
Selling is anathema in The Bronx — Brian Cashman has done so just once, ever, in a quarter-century as general manager — and even a year like this where there is a strong case to avoid buying counts as an anomaly.
Now, you can at least make a solid case that the Mets are doing the right thing. With a record well below .500, waving the white flag on the season is prudent, if painful. Losing Scherzer (and potentially Justin Verlander — who won his 250th game Sunday in the Mets’ 5-2 victory over the Nationals) matters more for 2024 than for the rest of this season, and given that Scherzer had a 4.01 ERA at age 38 with the Mets, it’s reasonable to question what he’ll turn in at age 39.
“It largely depends on how the organization views next year,’’ Verlander said of waiving his no-trade clause. “Max [leaving] is a tough sign for trying to go back at it like [what] happened this year. I’m committed to trying to win a championship here, but if the organization decides that’s not exactly the direction that’s the best fit to go for next year — to go for it again — then I’m more open to it.”
Getting Luisangel Acuña, a middle infielder and top-50 prospect in baseball, was a great piece of business for the Mets, and the depth of Cohen’s pocketbook has at least proven to change the calculus in deals like this, where he is happy to retain or pay down salaries to get a better return.
Competing for a championship in 2024 still should be a priority for the Mets — competing every year should be a byproduct of investing record amounts of money into a baseball team — but at least they are not operating with blinders.
“I don’t think we’ll be walking into 2024 with the same preseason odds that we did in 2022 [and] 2023,’’ Mets general manager Billy Eppler said. “It doesn’t mean we’re punting 2024. We’re gonna have a competitive team.”
Eppler also said, “It’s not a rebuild, it’s not a fire sale, it’s not a liquidation. This is just a repurposing of [owner Steve Cohen’s] investment in the club and kind of shifting that investment from the team into the organization.”
We have seen the Mets mishandle the trade deadline in both directions recently, dealing for Marcus Stroman in 2019 and Javy Baez in 2021, then failing to improve adequately last season, with all three ending in tears.
Better this than Cohen deciding the Mets are one player away from a run and selling the farm.
But prudence doesn’t excuse an unmitigated disaster of a season or lend itself to confidence that the Mets can avoid the same fate in the future.
In some ways, this is Cohen learning the same lesson that has befallen the Yankees and Dodgers over the past 20 years: Buying a championship is incredibly hard in baseball.
The Mets, however, have a way of making it look a lot tougher than everyone else — other high-payroll teams usually at least can buy their way into being annual contenders and blame the crapshoot of the postseason for failure.
Right now, Cohen’s cash has bought the Mets a few high-end prospects and a lot of high-profile disappointments. It’s almost August, and the Yankees are the last team standing in New York City.
New owner, same old situation.
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Could be worse
The news that the Padres are unlikely to sell because they have gotten within three games of .500 — one of the stranger justifications you’ll ever hear for pretending the season isn’t over — is another strong point in favor of how the Mets are reacting to a bad year.
The Padres under GM A.J. Preller have almost perennially underachieved. Remember in 2015 when Preller made a series of big swings by bringing in Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Wil Myers and James Shields? Eight years after that 74-88 debacle, the Padres have made the playoffs just twice, and now Preller is apparently talking himself into staying the course with a team nearly as disappointing as the Mets.
At least the Mets have not tried to ignore reality, even when admitting failure was probably a massive blow for everyone involved.
That is a characteristic that will serve Cohen well — and one that a whole lot of people across sports lack.
(The disappointing Cardinals also conceded Sunday by dealing away closer Jordan Hicks and starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery in separate trades.)
The Angels have gotten the underachieving reputation among Southern California teams, and not without good reason. But Preller is probably lucky that the Padres don’t play under as much scrutiny as their Los Angeles-based counterparts.
Circle the date
October 8 should be a fun day in Denver.
That is when the Jets will have a chance to defend themselves from Sean Payton’s comments on the field, instead of firing back at the Broncos coach in the media. But Aaron Rodgers did pretty well in the latter category on Sunday.
“It made me feel bad that someone who’s accomplished a lot in the league is that insecure that they have to take another man down to set themselves up for some sort of easy fall if it doesn’t go well for that team this year,” Rodgers told NFL Network on Sunday. “I thought it was way out of line, inappropriate, and I think he need to keep my coaches’ names out of his mouth.”
Payton took a series of shots at the Jets and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett in an interview with USA Today, saying Hackett did “one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL” with the 2022 Broncos.
“I love Nathaniel Hackett,” Rodgers said. “Those comments were very surprising, for a coach to do that to another coach. My love for [Hackett] goes deep. We had some great years together in Green Bay. Kept in touch. Love him and his family, he’s an incredible family man, incredible dad.
“On the field, he’s arguably my favorite coach I’ve ever had in the NFL. His approach to it, how he makes fun, how he cares about the guys, just how he goes about his business. With respect, with leadership, with honesty, with integrity.”
So yes, Rodgers should be pretty motivated come Week 5.
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