The Mets are trying to emulate the 2021 champion Braves — in an attempt to hold off the 2022 Braves in the NL East and succeed them as the World Series winner.
Atlanta did not do anything seismic leading up to the deadline last year. You might have missed it all if you were not a connoisseur of transactional agate. Their fans were left wondering in real time — “This is it?”
Yet, the incremental upgrades of Adam Duvall, Joc Pederson, Eddie Rosario and Jorge Soler was a one plus one plus one … that led to sum-thing special. Each contributed significantly to help the Braves to their first title since 1995.
Now was that a once-in-a-not-very-often alignment of non-stars to form a length and breadth that led to a championship parade? Or can the Mets duplicate that one year later?
Because the Mets followed the same trade deadline path this year. They protected the best of their farm system, which kept them from both stars and overpayment. They decided the 63 percent snapshot of this season was revelatory that they are an elite team — an elite team, by the way, that added Jacob deGrom back to the rotation on trade deadline day. Thus, they augmented rather than overhauled.
This version of Mets ownership/baseball operations probably has earned a chance to hold off the rebukes and see how this goes. After all, Steve Cohen allowed the non-Wilponian expansion to a near-$300 million payroll in the offseason and the Mets pretty much got it all right as far as talent and team-oriented players with Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha, Chris Bassitt and Adam Ottavino. They got the manager darn near perfect, as Buck Showalter’s strategic acumen and ability to focus and bond a group on a common goal has maximized the talent base in a way that had been foreign to Met teams of recent vintage.
Mets GM Billy EpplerTom DiPaceIn the what have you done for me lately maw of 2022, there is a knee-jerk to act like yesterday doesn’t count and demand more tribute. Add more payroll. Acquire more stars.
But who? The Nationals were never trading Juan Soto to the Mets even if they offered their top five prospects plus Mike Piazza and David Wright. Starting pitching was not an area of need. For all the screaming to go get Willson Contreras or J.D. Martinez, nobody got them — symbolic that an industry thought the requests from the Cubs and Red Sox, respectively, were too high. It was not just the Mets who said no.
Among relievers, David Robertson probably would have been perfect — New York and playoff tested and even at 37 still curveballing his way to dominance against both lefties and righties. That he went in the division to the Phillies makes it hurt a bit more. Mychal Givens generally fell into the rest of the relief pool, which is to say it is a flammable job in which your best or worst 20 innings can be just about to hit. The edge with Givens being obtained by the Mets from the Cubs is that Showalter knows him well having managed him for his first four major league seasons in Baltimore. Givens can become part of the bridge to Edwin Diaz.
The inability to add a quality lefty reliever hurt most of all. Four went in this trade market — Josh Hader and Taylor Rogers for each other plus Jake Diekman and Will Smith, who seemed to fit salary dump/change of scenery most. Hader is historically great, but has not been the last month and gives the whiff of someone perhaps not suited for this market. Texas’ Matt Moore, Baltimore’s Cionel Perez and Detroit’s Andrew Chafin all stayed put. They were the type that Showalter would have craved because they not only handle lefties, but in a three-batter-must world do well against righties, too.
Can David Peterson transition to the role to help down the stretch and in the playoffs? Can Tylor Megill do the same when he gets healthy and add a power righty pen arm?
As for the offense, the Mets are averaging the fourth-most runs in the majors. Like the Braves last year, the Mets went with Jenga pieces they up do not collapse upon themselves — Tyler Naquin and Daniel Vogelbach are lefty swingers with histories of hitting righty pitching well. On Tuesday, the Mets traded J.D. Davis and three minor leaguers of not great renown for Darin Ruf, a righty-swinger with a history of hitting lefties well.
The Braves celebrate winning the 2021 World Series.APThat trio provides Showalter more maneuverability and depth in the daily lineup, and more late-game pinch-hitting options, especially for catchers James McCann and Tomas Nido.
The Mets felt burned last year in surrendering an injured prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong for a few months of Javier Baez in a pipe-dream hope to make the playoffs with a defective, badly managed roster. Crow-Armstrong has emerged as one of the finer outfield prospects in the game in 2022 and the Mets did not want to replicate that kind of mistake without getting a huge difference maker and/or some impact that could help beyond this season.
So they protected the best of their system: Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Matt Allan, Dominic Hamel, Ronny Mauricio, Alex Ramirez, Mark Vientos and Calvin Ziegler. I suspect the fan base will be happy they did when a story surfaces on, let’s say Nov. 15, that the Angels are accepting offers again for Shohei Ohtani, who was recruited to the Angels by current Mets GM Billy Eppler.
Mark Vientos (r.) and Francisco Alvarez at the MLB Futures Game.Getty ImagesAgain, if there were a realistic difference maker that the Mets could have landed that moved in this market, then by all means — go all in. But you might note the only NL team with a better record than the Mets, the Dodgers, also stayed relatively static. The Braves again tried to address shortcomings with supplementary pieces. The team that went all-in in a way perhaps never seen before was the Padres, who got Hader and notably Juan Soto and Josh Bell at the cost of pretty much gutting their farm system. Good for them for going for it.
But as things stand now, with all they did, the Padres face a first-round best-of-three all-on-the-road playoff series. Did the Mets do enough at the deadline and with the return of deGrom and soon McCann and Trevor May too to hold off Atlanta and get a bye out of the first round? DeGrom is so vital now.
Still, the Mets are better and deeper today. It didn’t cost them tomorrow. It was a Brave approach.
