Why The Mets Are Worse Off After Steve Cohen's 1st-Year As Owner
The Mets are staring down the barrel of elimination.
If the Braves or Phillies win, the Mets' non-existent chances in the NL East will officially be put to bed tonight.
Keep in mind, the Mets have gone 3-11 over the course of the last two weeks and have already been playing like they've been out of it for quite some time, despite still somehow being mathematically alive.
Regardless, the Mets need to take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror after the collapse they endured in the second-half of the season.
And it starts at the top. At this point, changes are imminent, and tonight could very well close the book for good, which will shift their main focus to the future. And rightfully so.
The ball is about to be in the hands of Mets owner Steve Cohen, and he must step up if he hopes to deliver his promise of a World Series within the next 3-5 years. One year is down, and there is only four left to go with no signs of getting any closer to this ultimate goal.
Cohen might have come in last year saying all of the right things, but his first season running the show proved to be disastrous from the product on the field, to all of the dysfunction both on-and-off of it.
You could have awoken from a coma today and believed the Wilpon family was still steering the ship the way things played out this year.
Cohen purchased the Mets for a walloping $2.4 billion, but his wallet and willingness to spend, given the team has the third-highest payroll in baseball, did not equate to wins.
It created a ton expectations and instilled hope into a battered fan base, but ended in the same result. The 10th losing season in the last 13 years, as well as the fifth year in a row without a playoff berth.
In fact, it has left these long-suffering fans saying much of the same in the form of: same ol' Mets.
The clock is ticking for Mr. Cohen and the honeymoon is over. He has to start by bringing in a miracle worker in the form of a competent president to run the baseball operations department. It starts there, but there is a lot of work left to do to build a winner in the short and long term.
After watching how things played out in 2021, it appears as though the Mets are a lot further off from being contenders than when Cohen took over last year, given the slew of question marks, not only on the roster, think health-wise wise Jacob deGrom, and performance-wise: Jeff McNeil, Dom Smith etc, but in the front office and on the coaching staff as well.
We shall see if they are capable of going from [almost] worst to first in 2022. But there is a long way to go for that to happen.
UPDATE
The Mets were officially eliminated after the Phillies beat the Pirates. It is the fifth consecutive season that the Mets have missed the playoffs.
Syndergaard Looming
Noah Syndergaard threw two scoreless innings for Syracuse today, allowing one hit and striking out two batters on 23-pitches (17 strikes). The right-hander's velocity sat in the low-90's.
This was likely his final rehab appearance before rejoining the Mets for the first time in two full-years.
According to Mets manager Luis Rojas, they are going to get together to discuss next steps for him shortly. But based off Syndergaard's performance on Saturday, his return appears to be imminent this week.
DeGrom
After Jacob deGrom threw a 25-pitch bullpen session of all fastballs on Friday, his next step could be to face live hitters.
As Rojas said, it hasn't been decided on whether this step will come in Milwaukee, or when the Mets return back home to face the Marlins this week.
Either way, it sounds like deGrom is potentially on track to pitch in a live game against the Braves in some way, shape or form in the final series of the season next weekend.
But he must get over at least one more hurdle in order to do so.
