It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It’s deep September and Mets fans should be getting ready for the playoffs. Instead we’re wasting air, bandwidth, and bad takes on more depressing business.
Buck Showalter has one more year remaining on his contract with the team. When he was hired in 2022, the Mets and Showalter hoped they would be in a position to obtain a World Series championship for all of his three-year contract. As it stands now, that window was open briefly and it’s already closed. And some Mets fans, I believe a loud and annoying minority, want Showalter to pay with his job for next season.
The Mets biffed the end of the regular season in 2022 when the Braves took the division. Then they but were removed from the Major League playoffs by the San Diego Padres in the Wild Card.
The Mets fought hard. Max Scherzer came up small and the lineup couldn’t crack Joe Musgrove. But at least Jacob deGrom got one last chance to shine in the dying autumn light.
deGrom blew fastballs all over the zone, especially up top. His sliders bit off left-handed hitters at the knees and sent righties chasing foolish dreams on the far side of the plate. A healthy Jacob deGrom was really quite something. It was like watching Duke Ellington throw high cheddar.
The page turned to this season. deGrom was out, Verlander was in, and the World Series was back on. Until it wasn’t. The 2023 season always seemed to be ahead of the Mets. The rotation was never healthy, the bullpen was a morass, and the lineup was short on power and batting averages over .250.
The Mets record is currently 70-81. Verlander, Scherzer, and a handful of expiring veteran contracts have been turned into prospects via trade. The team is not only out of contention this season but most likely for next one too. As the Dude in The Big Lebowski once said, “It’s a bummer, man.”
But is all this because of Buck Showalter? A rational person would say no. It’s not the manager’s fault that Edwin Diaz was injured before the season. Nor is he to blame because his 39 and 40 year-old pitchers couldn’t stay healthy or effective. Buck isn’t hitting several points lower than his career average. But Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil are both hitting .269. And let’s not get into what happened to Starling Marte this season.
The manager in baseball has to manage the team on the field and in the clubhouse. The players love Buck so it’s safe to say he still has the room. The men in that room know it’s not his fault. And they know that this game is cruel.
“And I screamed for whatever it’s worth
“I love you,” ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?”
Cruel Summer, Taylor Swift
Swift, or Mother as we like to call her, is cutting right to the bone of one of what it means to be a passionate human person here. Sometimes you want something so bad it feels like you’re rent in two: the life you have and the one you want.
We, and by we, I mean Mets fans, want that World Series back. Playing in the World Series is fun. And the Series itself is fun when the Mets are in it.
We’re the good New York City baseball team. We’re at our very heart, soul, core and everything else that means something in this world, not the Yankees. We’re way cooler than them. You’re allowed to grow a beard in Queens. Also we lose more games than they do.
The point is there’s no good reason to let the manager of the Mets go. Showalter is a man respected all over the best baseball league in the world for being warm, prepared and professional. The message it sends to others around the game would be the Mets are reactive and unstable. It’s not gonna be easy to attract talent to your organization when that’s your reputation.
It’s possible that Showalter himself will decide to retire. However, I doubt that. Buck seems like a man who believes in honoring his contract. Plus, I think he still digs it. Showalter’s a baseball man in his bones.
Which brings us back to Mother and the quote up top. If you, a normal and breathing idiot, who lives their life they way we all do: barely hanging on! Who does their best to make it through the day and finds magic in baseball because it fills your summer nights with the familiar but also the unexpected. Because it fills your days with dreams. We love baseball, sure.
But can you imagine how much a baseball man loves it? That’s incredibly cruel indeed.
Baseball was created to be loved.