Season 2 of Brodie Van Wagenen’s regime as the Mets’ general manager is slated to begin with far less boastfulness than his debut.
The “come find us” Van Wagenen, who anointed the Mets as the team to beat the National League East in 2019, only to see them collapse before increasing their relevance at the end of the season, an opportunity presented itself. on Thursday to place his club as the hunted. Based on his response, he learned from a rookie mistake.
“We’re going to go from cable to cable here and not give up,” said Van Wagenen, when asked if the Mets were the team to beat in the National League East. “There are so many unpredictable things or there will be so many variables that will dictate success or failure in the season. We have already seen the challenges and the adversity. ”
The Mets have missed the playoffs in the past three seasons, bringing a series of changes that included a review of the main office and three new managers, including Carlos Beltrán, who retired just 77 days on the job last season. after being named in the offseason. MLB report on the Astros’ illegal sign theft scheme. The last of those hired managers, Luis Rojas, will finally make his debut as a major league manager on Friday, about 121 days after the season was scheduled to start and delayed by the coronavirus outbreak.
Van Wagenen modified last year’s list with relatively small offseason acquisitions such as Rick Porcello, Michael Wacha, Dellin Betances, and Jake Marisnick. Van Wagenen rolled the dice that the Mets were close after last season’s 86 wins. Will the season be a failure, the general manager was asked, if the Mets lose the playoffs again? After that question was asked, the playoff bar was lowered as MLB and MLBPA worked to finalize a deal that would expand the postseason from five teams in each league to eight.
“I am not going to define success or failure in any definition,” said Van Wagenen. “Our mission is to win now and win in the future and that has not changed. We won 86 games last year. We want to make the playoffs this year. We want to win many more games than we lost this year and we want to do it every year. “
The 60-game sprint will begin Friday at Citi Field against the Braves, with two-time Cy Young Award-winning defender Jacob deGrom on the mound against Mike Soroka, last year’s runner-up of the year in the National League.
There are already thousands of cardboard cutouts in the seats that will give the Mets the silent treatment, win or lose. It will be the weirdest first game in the franchise’s 59 seasons, but then this entire season, or at least whatever exists, will seem like a kind of “Twilight Zone” marathon.
The Mets were in the world of empty baseball stadiums over the weekend, with two exhibition games against the Yankees. For Pete Alonso, it evoked memories of playing in the minor leagues.
“You can probably count how many fans are in the stands in both hands during a Florida State League game,” said Alonso. “It was pretty close to that [last weekend] And also having the fan noise is a bit strange, especially when you don’t see faces in the seats, but I also know that it helps [television] to transmit. I am indifferent to the noise from the fans, but I love that they are playing the music and creating an atmosphere as best they can. “
The “adversity” Van Wagenen spoke of included the loss of Noah Syndergaard in the first spring training to surgery by Tommy John and Marcus Stroman in recent days for a broken left calf. But starting with Alonso (who broke an MLB rookie record for 53 home runs last season), Yoenis Céspedes and Jeff McNeil, the Mets have a lineup that could possibly offset the pitch question marks.
Are the Mets the team to beat in the National League East?
“I think so,” said Alonso. “We have an extremely dynamic lineup. We also have an excellent team of pitchers. I think we have the pieces to do it. “
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