Giving Tomás Nido and James McCann a combined 500 plate appearances on a team that ostensibly had World Series aspirations really was an episode in front office malpractice. Many words will be written here and elsewhere this winter on Billy Eppler’s decision not to be more aggressive at the trade deadline.

Even in the middle of another playoff run, they inked future ace Spencer Strider this week to a six-year contract that will ensure his salary doesn’t balloon beyond what Atlanta can afford. The Braves set themselves up to be championship contenders for the next decade by signing nearly their entire core to team-friendly, long-term contract extensions. One doesn’t need to look to the West Coast for a model of balanced, sustainable roster-building. Cohen may be the richest man in baseball, but not even he can build a dynasty with money alone. There’s a reason why, even with a seemingly-endless fortune upon which he can draw, owner Steve Cohen envies the Los Angeles Dodgers’ approach to building a perennial winner, one that pairs an unbelievably deep farm system churning out cheap future stars with high-priced free agent and trade acquisitions. The closest the current roster has to a youth movement are 27 year-olds Pete Alonso and David Peterson. Key contributors are old and set to become more expensive in the years to come as the last age out of arbitration eligibility. In truth, it’s hard to imagine how the Mets can actually emerge from this upcoming offseason a better baseball team when merely keeping together the current roster could require a payroll approaching $350 million. Max Scherzer battled a nagging oblique problem and Starling Marte’s bat was sorely missed in September, but the team’s key pieces otherwise stayed remarkably healthy.īut the “glass half-full” view of the 2022 Mets closely mirrors the “glass half-empty” perspective for the Mets in 2023 and beyond. Jeff McNeil bounced back from a career-worst season to win a batting title. Taijuan Walker avoided a repeat of last year’s second-half collapse. A 35 year-old Carlos Carrasco turned in a healthy, productive season for the first time in years. Given the Mets’ humiliating collapse over the last month which saw a team that once held a 10.5-game division lead over the defending champion Braves dominated by an 89-win team on national television, it’s hard to think of the 2022 season as one in which nearly everything for the Mets went right.Īnd yet, on closer inspection, absent two baffling weekends in Atlanta and Queens, this year’s team really did play up to its full potential, and then some.

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

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