From a distance, the 2017 Mets look like a Christmas tree on January 10. At first, it's fun and fragrant and inviting, then begins to wilt, with branches rotting, bulbs and lights sliding off, a dusting of green needles carpeting the floor. The only ornament worth saving is that glowing star on top, which you snag and save for next year.
Likewise, the Mets seem like a crumbling club worth discarding, with their star on top, Jacob deGrom, the only player worth preserving. They darted out the gate with an 11-1 record, then went 66-84 the rest of the way, their season essentially over before the All-Star break.
We used to wonder which of four potential aces would lead the Mets' rotation. But deGrom has since lapped the field with his historic season, stamping his name in the MLB archives. One of only three pitchers to toss at least 200 innings while recording 200 strikeouts, fewer than 50 walks, and finishing with an ERA under 2.00, deGrom set a record for consecutive quality starts (23), as well as consecutive starts allowing three or fewer runs (26).
Like always, the Mets tease our town. Noah Syndergaard, who used to run neck-and-neck with deGrom, has become saddled with a slew of injuries. Yet Thor ended his season with a complete-game shutout, and finished 2018 with a neat 13-4 record and tidy 3.04 ERA, in what has to be the quietest 25 starts in recent memory. And, in another team-wide tease, the Mets (77-85) did finish the season with a 38-30 record.
The Mets may still have the parts for a good rotation in 2019. Zach Wheeler (12-7, 3.31 ERA) had a solid season, pitching 182 innings on 29 starts. Steven Matz (5-11, 3.97 ERA) pitched just well enough to anchor the back-end of the starting staff. They still need a fifth starter and to back-up the truck to rebuild the bullpen.
If you wonder why we aren't diving into detail over the Mets' lineup, it's because they don't have one worth mentioning. As a team, the Mets ranked 12th out of 15 NL teams in runs scored (676), 12th in OPS (.701), 14th in hits (1,282), and 14th in batting average (.234).
MORE: 5 Takeaways From Jeff Wilpon's Press Conference
All of it starts with the farm system, where the Mets are anemic in alarming ways. An exhaustive breakdown by Bleacher Report has the Mets' minor-league pipeline ranked No. 29 out of 30 MLB teams entering the 2018 season (down from 27th in 2017). MLB.com was slightly more magnanimous, ranking the Mets farm system 26th a month before this season started.
If you'd like a synopsis of their organizational mayhem, consider they let a player score on a sac fly to the second basemen. They literally batted out of order in the first inning of a game in Cincinnati. In a perfect metaphor for the season, Jay Bruce just tried to trot off the diamond when the team recorded only two outs.
The chaos transcends the diamond. As a piece from CBSSports.com notes, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon hurled his front office under the bus for not spending top dollars on top players and on a more adroit analytics department- a curious thing to do while the man who ran the club, Sandy Alderson, battles cancer.
But as the CBSSports piece asserts, quoting Tim Britton of the Atlantic, Wilpon himself bristled at the idea of cracking open the club's wallet in order to expand the three-man analytics staff, which is among the smallest in the sport. And as the piece asserts, it makes little sense that Alderson, who helped to spawn the analytics era, would object to adding to his own gaggle of numbers geeks.
Maybe that was on Fred Wilpon, not Jeff. But it's all symbolic of an organization, an organism, where one hand can't find the other. When you look at successful teams across the montage of pro sports, you know who is in charge, the corporate totem pole crystalline clear. The New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox, and Golden State Warriors have no strife in the suites atop their stadiums.
If the Mets gaze across the Harlem River, they will see that Brian Cashman is the singular face of personnel moves. And ever since George Steinbrenner hired Joe Torre, let loose of fewer missives, and loosened his grip on the steering wheel, the Yankees have been a model of managerial harmony.
The Mets had some odd trinity of personnel men replace Alderson, who had to resign in light of his illness. Jeff Wilpon assures us he will hire one man to run the club before the GM meetings in November. But is there any reason to believe the Mets will morph into the Yankees? One of the men charged with hiring Alderson's replacement is assistant GM Jon Ricco. A curious move when it's likely Ricco thinks that he should have the gig. (How often have you been asked to name your next boss?)
A shame Big Apple baseball fans can't be appointed to hire the next owner of the New York Mets.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel.
