As we speak, the Mets are currently handily conquering the Philadelphia Phillies on their home turf, which, to be fair, wasn't especially difficult for the AL to do the other night. And now, I assume, people are going to try to position this as a Mets second half comeback. They shouldn't.
The Mets are a team built on broken promises. The most important promises were to Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, and it was the promise of continued success. Both players were making the playoffs a lot more frequently before they ended up in New York. Lindor got to a World Series with Cleveland, Soto got to a World Series with the Nats and Yanks. Can they get to one with the Mets? Not this Mets team. You can see broken promises all the way down, like the promise of Luis Robert to be a superstar, or the promise of Bo Bichette to flip the family legacy and improve defensively, or the promise of Mark Vientos to deliver on what the 2024 postseason was teasing. So far this season the big additions have either gotten hurt or struggled mightily, the big stars are fighting with each other, and the rookies are doing the brunt of the work.
Christian Scott, Carson Benge, A.J. Ewing, Zach Thornton and Jonah Tong should not matter this much to a team with this many all-stars on it. Yet none of them are delivering, so fine, the rookies will do. Thankfully Benge and Ewing were both ready, and are some of the few bright spots on this Mets team. Ewing is 21, and looking more confident than most 21-year-olds in his position, hitting .276 with 7 homers and 24 RBIs, plus a .789 OPS, in 57 games. He's currently leading the charge against Philly. This guy, as well as Benge, who's got 11 homers and 37 RBIs, could be dictating the next decade of Mets baseball, along with Nolan McLean if he figures things out a little more [then again Kershaw's sophomore year was kinda rough too].
But...at this point you have to wonder how much more of this Juan Soto is willing to take. The Mets' rise with him hasn't been immediate, which is already kind of a shock, but when the Yankees are still good without him, the buyer's remorse has to be a little real. Soto's still elite, he's got a .967 OPS, 21 homers and 51 RBIs, but would those RBIs be closer to 70 with a better team? He left the Nats and Padres because he wanted a unit, and he left the Yankees because....the Mets felt like more of a unit than the Yankees? I'm gonna go to my grave not understanding this, especially if current trends persist. We'd still get Bellinger, it'd be fine, but...it's a vexing move, even now.
The Mets will likely be a little better than they were, and become the second-half spoiler they usually are. But this is still not a competitive team, even with all these new guys giving their all. Maybe it will be next year, who knows. But this strategy needs to be rethought, seriously. A.J. Ewing was not meant to be the takeaway. Nice that he is, but he's salvaging a flawed situation.
Coming Tomorrow- That rookie Angels pitcher I was teasing this morning.
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