Gio and Jerry opened Thursday’s show reacting to the Rangers winning the World Series, and Gio’s main takeaway was the seemingly strong clubhouse in Texas, which is something he says the Mets could have used this season.
“You need a full clubhouse of guys who care,” Gio said. “Not guys who care more about the WBC, or guys who aren’t working hard like Tommy Pham said about the Mets clubhouse.
“One thing you can’t calculate…is that want-to when you’re losing, it’s coming to the end of the season, and you have guys saying ‘Come on, let’s go. Let’s figure this thing out and get to the playoffs and the World Series.’”
Gio believes players went all out in the WBC, and losing Edwin Diaz for the year didn’t help, and is convinced the Mets weren’t prepared for the 162-game grind afterward. So, next season, he hopes the clubhouse is more focused and ready to grind, like the Rangers seemed to be in 2023.
“Sometimes you get a clubhouse, like apparently the Mets this year…it seemed like the World Baseball Classic sucked the life out of the season,” Gio said. “And they sort of just didn’t care after that. That is really the elixir.”