METS END MAGICAL SEASON, BUT THE STORY IS FAR FROM OVER

Once upon a time, back in May, I wrote that the Mets season was over. Some argued that it actually ended on opening day, while others just plain agreed with me. Nobody could argue that the Mets weren’t dead in the water. But at this point, we all know where the story went, the whimsical highs and crushing lows. But the story, on its last legs, lost transmission on Sunday night. The scrappy team that could made it all the way to Game 6 of the NLCS before taking one final death blow at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers, one that’s going to sting for months to come. But it’s a different kind of sting as opposed to what baseball fans are used to. 

 

Typically, when a team goes on a failed postseason run, there’s somebody or something to blame. An egregious player error, a boneheaded decision by management, a blown call, a ball that could have made it over the fence if it was just slightly windier. When fans look back at the 2024 NLCS, there won’t be any of those thoughts. The Mets were simply outclassed by the best team in baseball, who just so happened to get hot at the right time. It’s not often that the best team also becomes the hottest team in October, but this is simply what happened. There’s no other way to cut it but most importantly, there’s nobody to blame. Except maybe Phil Maton, but I digress. 

 

In game 1, the Mets were systematically broken down in a 9-0 shutout. They clapped back in game 2 with an invigorating 7-3 win. But then, returning to New York, the Dodgers put their heads down and got right back to work, winning games 3 and 4 by a tally of 8-0 and 10-2 respectively. Then, in a glimmering moment of magic, the Mets came back hard, got their revenge on game 1 starter, Jack Flahrety and won handily, 12-6. Fans knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but it wasn’t improbable to think that they could go to LA and win 2 more games. In game 6, the Mets quickly took the lead on a ridiculous infield single by Pete Alonso. But then the Dodgers quickly answered and never looked back, winning 10-5 and clinching their 4th pennant in 8 seasons. 

 

That’s not to say that the Mets completely laid down and took it. This was, after all, a 6 game series. The team worked together on most nights to cobble up as much as possible. Mark Vientos is a player that stuck out in particular. If the series had gone other ways, he would have been named MVP. He mashed 3 home runs, all at opportune times and racked up the most postseason RBIs in Mets history. He made a name for himself on a national spotlight and has firmly cemented himself as the starting 3rd baseman for seasons to come. Ryne Stanek and Edwin Díaz did their job to hold down the bullpen when they were needed most, despite the wheels falling off at the end. We finally saw an offensive spark out of Francisco Alvarez, who I have to remind everyone is 22 years old and has a ridiculously bright future with a high ceiling. Francisco Lindor remained an on-base machine and led the charge of causing traffic on the basepaths. None of the teams failings were due to lack of effort or talent. They simply hit the buzzsaw.

 

We knew going in that the Dodgers were a top-heavy team. You had a sleeping giant in Shohei Ohtani, the always impressive Mookie Betts, an injured Freddie Freeman, a dangerous Teoscar Hernandez and then a whole bunch of muck. In the ALDS, the Padres feasted on that muck and going into this series, they were greatly underestimated. But the writing was on the wall. 4 of the guys at the bottom of the batting order were, in no particular order, Max Muncy, Kiké Hernandez, Will Smith and Chris Taylor. What do these guys have in common? They’ve been staples in the Dodgers lineup for their 3 previous Pennant wins and beyond. You can look at their stats this season, scoff and say that they’re washed. But what you can’t put on paper is their experience. They had been in that scenario all too many times, because they were all brought up or picked out of the trash by the Dodgers organization. They were there before the superstars arrived and they’ll be remembered long after they’re gone. So it’s no surprise that they all had memorable moments in the series, because this is the only normal they know. On any other teams, they would be nobodies, but as a part of the Dodgers machine, they matter. And this is what differentiated the Mets and Dodgers, but also what makes them so similar. 

 

The core of the 2024 Mets were comprised of a few young guys, a few mainstays and a bunch of guys on their last chance with a huge chip on their shoulder. There are no egos and no bad feelings, it was literally a locker room of brothers. And now these guys know what success tastes like. As long as they stay together, this will make them stronger and stronger for years to come. What they built in the locker room this year was an entirely different culture. People may trickle in and out, but it’s going to take a lot of failure to ruin that culture, that winning spirit. Much like the Dodgers, the back-end core can gain more and more experience and the team can just grow with it. Spending money also won’t hurt, and owner Steve Cohen is not afraid to do that. 

 

But now the question remains: what will the Mets look like next year? In a post-game interview, Pete Alonso spoke of his time with the Mets in the past tense. Losing him in free agency would be a huge hit, but I look at it this way: Pete is going to get an offer from the Mets and if he goes to somewhere else because of the money, then he doesn’t deserve to be in the clubhouse. The Mets have unfinished business and if he doesn’t see that or believe in that, then he’s not welcome. A lot of the guys were on one-year contracts, as Steve took a chance on them and it paid off. The likes of Sean Manaea, Jessie Winker, JD Martinez, Luis Severino and Jose Iglesias were all reclamation projects and they will surely get offers from other teams. But you have to believe that Steve will open the checkbook for every single one of them and if they want to finish the story, they’d be more than welcome to contribute. And from the post-game interviews, you can kind of tell that they want to finish the story. And if they don’t, you have to trust the process. David Stearns will find guys to replace them and the locker room will assimilate them. 

 

The story will go on, with or without the free agents. This season was nothing short of magical and because of that, it seems clear that this was a tide changing for the franchise. We’re all sick of hearing, “maybe next year”. But next year will also be good. We’re only one year into the tenure of team president, David Stearns and manager, Carlos Mendoza. They took a franchise that choked in 2022, failed to do anything positive in 2023 and turned them into must-see TV. Just look at how the media handled last night’s game. ESPN posted a meme of the Dodgers holding an OMG sign that was poorly photoshopped to say “World Series”. Fox Sports posted a meme of Ohtani knocking out Grimace in a boxing ring. While it’s easy to take offense to such low-brow tactics, the message is clear: The Mets got under the skin of Major League Baseball. Half the nation loved them for having fun and the other half hated them for all the same reasons. But they are now an established brand, which is much more than just being “the other New York team”. Merchandise sales have grown and will continue to grow, as will attendance. Steve Cohen will be more motivated than ever to spend money and it’ll be helpful that almost $200 million is going off the payroll for next season. You compound that with the locker room culture and suddenly the Mets are very enticing for prospective players, especially Latino ones. Despite the heroics that he’s performing in the Bronx, it isn’t unreasonable to believe that Juan Soto would be tempted to cross the river. The 2024 Mets were a melting pot of culture and it clearly stuck out among other homogenized Super Teams. This improbable run has established the Mets as a destination franchise. You get all the glitz and glamor of being a New York team, but you don’t have to get a haircut and act robotic. It’s win-win. 

 

On a personal note, this was an extremely difficult series for me. I have been a die-hard Dodgers fan for most of my adult life, always putting the Mets second. After the 2021 postseason, I became more and more disenchanted with the franchise. I grew to hate Dave Roberts and the voodoo curse he has on the front office to keep his job. I grew to hate the cockiness of Dodger fans, hated the problematic players they kept employing and hated how much they were hated by the people I loved. I found refuge in the confines of Citi Field and learned to love baseball for the sake of baseball again. I can now say, with immense confidence, that the 2024 Mets were my favorite sports team to ever take the field. And getting the opportunity to write about the Mets on a regular basis this year only amplified my love. It all happened at the right time, as this is the start of a much bigger story. One that’s going to take years to tell and I’ll be more than happy to relay as it happens. But for now, the story has to wait. I’ll move on with my life, go and buy myself a World Series Dodgers hat and root on the boys in blue to win their first non-pandemic trophy since 1988. Sounds like fun. But not as much fun as what could have been and what definitely will be. 

 

The Mets will return to New York at their own leisure and then travel to Port St Lucie for a Saturday afternoon game against the Astros on February 22nd. Who exactly will be on that team is still up in the air. But some things are certain: the culture the Mets created this year will last for years to come, the fans will come in droves to believe and as impossible as it may seem, the sun will come out tomorrow. 

 

Also, Dodgers in 5. Book it.