The Mets season is over, coming two wins short of a pennant in a season where many expected the team to not even contend for a playoff spot in 2024.
New York provided its fanbase with a thrill ride of incredible moments along the way, and they are not ones Sal Licata will soon forget, but he doesn’t want to celebrate the season less than 24 hours after it ended short of a World Series berth.
“It is a team that, for me, as a fan, you can be proud of, but ultimately, it’s just not enough,” Sal said.
“If you want to sit here and paint the rosy picture of ‘Hey, what a great season!’ And they did have a great season and provided many moments…but I am not one to accept losing. And ultimately, the Mets lost. They lost to teams that are better.”
Sal still laments the Mets not going all in at the deadline for a Blake Snell or another arm that could have helped New York get past the Dodgers in the NLCS, and while he is not angry at all with the season, it still fell short of the ultimate goal.
“This is a great starting point, sure. I’ve seen this before in my life,” Sal said. “What I haven’t seen before since I was a seven-year-old kid is the Mets win a World Series. So I don’t know if today is the day where everyone is gonna want to sit back and say ‘Hey, what a great year!’ Yeah, it was, and that’s nice, but ultimately, they weren’t good enough.”
Now, the work begins to make sure the Mets are consistently battling for a pennant, and Sal says there will need to be some tough decisions on some players that were faces of this incredible turnaround and unexpected run.
“Look at the other teams, whether it’s the Dodgers, the Yankees…that feeling you get when you get to the top of their order…The Mets have Lindor and Vientos,” Sal said. “Nimmo’s not it and Alonso’s fine. “But that’s the problem.
Again, after all this, we’re back to the same issue. The core isn’t good enough, and they need new players.”