When the rest of the world seems to bend in on us, Toots is fond to say “the vibes are off.” From the jump, the vibes were off with the Mets in 2023 and the whole season was a real bummer.
But all that is the business of bad memory now. The season is gone. Like any baseball season, it brought joy in smaller amounts than you wished for. And it brought pain with the power of King Kong.
What’s going to happen next season wil feed our dreams through autumn, which is always gray and charming, much like our envy for other teams in the postseason. Fun and absurd dreams will take us through the dark and angry winter. Then comes the spring where the bracing cold eases and the hope grows with the leaves.
So let’s talk about the questions for the Mets in 2024.
Who will be the manager?
A belief is new President of Baseball Operations will bring Craig Counsell over from Milwaukee. Counsell has an impressive track record. He led the Brewers to consecutive playoff appearances from 2018-2021 and the Brewers are back in the tournament this season. Counsell is known for being hyper focused and getting the most of the players on the roster.
Other candidates appear to be Joe Espada, Clayton McCullough, Ryan Flaherty, and plenty of others.
Another name is Gabe Kapler, recently let go by the Giants. However, Kapler’s name produces some eye rolls due to his over reliance on analytics, short hook with pulling pitchers, and mediocre track record, save for 2021 when his team won 107 games.
Kapler’s general handsomeness is an issue for me. I don’t like going to the ballpark and not being the most handsome man there. So I’m a firm no on Kapler.
But the bottom-line is no matter what you read on an app, hear on a podcast, or see on the good old-fashioned television, the only truthful answer to the question is I don’t know.
Who will be in the starting rotation?
Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana and then a hefty “who knows?”
David Peterson, Tylor Megill, Joey Luchhesi, and Jose Butto are maybes. All have, at different times, pitched well. It appears that the organization will pick one from this group to start the season and see the other three as “depth.” A safe assumption is one will start next season in the rotation and the rest in the minors or the bullpen.
At least two starters will come from free agency. At the high end of the class are Blake Snell and Aaron Nola. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is an alluring member of the group.
Guys like Sonny Gray and Jordan Montgomery will be out there. With the Mets in a transitional year in 2024, it’s hard to think they’ll add significant payroll to the starting staff. But even though I love the Mets and I’m super fun to be around, I don’t work for the team. So I don’t know.
WIll Pete Alonso’s contract be extended into a long-term deal?
I damn well hope so. Alonso mashes baseballs and it’s brilliant to see. But he appears to be a heartbeat guy too. If recent comments by Mark Canha are to be believed, Pete wears being on Met on his soul. Alonso is an immense and positive guy.
However, whether the player and the team can come to terms on a long-term before Spring Training remains to be seen. Previous reporting shows the financials are set but the length is under negotiation. Positive signs but we’re not in the room for the next meeting. So as much as I’d love to have something more definitive than personal speculation, I don’t know.
Do you pursue Shohei Ohtani?
You gotta ask for a meeting, right? Ohtani is a remarkable possiblity. But as what?
Shohei can bash. He’s put up over 30 HRs in each of his last three seasons and over 40 twice. A career average of .274 is nice but I’d expect that to go down over time.
While his pitching numbers are good, I’m not enamored with them. He’s never thrown more than 166 innings in a season. What good is a starter if you can’t rely on them for a full season?
His career 3.01 ERA is beautiful though. So is the stuff. Ohtani will wipe a hitter off the plate. I wonder if he could work as a reliever. But that would be up to him and the team who employs him. Not you, me, or probably anyone else you know. So I don’t know.
How do you improve the bullpen?
Edwin Diaz comes back. Then free agency again. As for who will get signed, I don’t know.
“And you may say to yourself, “My God, what have I done?”
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down”
Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime”
Toots and I went to see the re-release of Stop Making Sense last Friday. The 1984 concert film of the Talking Heads was directed by Jonathan Demme, who went on to direct Philadelphia and The Silence of the Lambs.
As the show opens, frontman David Byrne walks onto a barren stage with a microphone. Byrne, with his hair slicked back and wearing a white suit without a tie, carries an acoustic guitar and a boom box (80s alert!). He looks in many ways like the prototypical 80s yuppie.
“Hi, I’ve got a tape I want to play you,” Byrne says. He places the boom box down and hits play. A pre-recorded drum track begins and Byrne strums the opening chords of “Psycho Killer.”
The opening lyrics, nervy and anxious, set the tone, “Can’t seem to face up to the facts \ I’m tense and nervous, can’t relax”. While the show doesn’t tell a story per se, there is a narrative. As the set goes on, other members of the group join David onstage. As the stage gets fuller so does the music. What started as a drumbeat and an acoustic guitar becomes a full-on dance party.
Byrne’s “character” gradually starts loosening and shedding his clothes. His hair becomes wilder. His whole personality is of a man set free. The music gets funkier and so does Byrne. He is a man that’s been liberated by funk.
Joy abounds throughout the movie. Highlights include a breathtaking “Once in a Lifetime.” My favorite is “Life During Wartime” with the entire band running in place to the infectious hook and propulsive beat. Byrne stretches his entire frame to deliver the chorus, “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco \ This ain’t no fooling around.” The irony being that it’s so much fun.
The big one, both figuratively and literally, is “Girlfriend is Better.” Byrne strolls onstage in a big suit. Not just large or oversized. I mean BIG. It’s meant to be comic and ridiculous and succeeds at both. As the song barrels to its conclusion Byrne implores the audience, “Stop making sense, stop making sense, making sense!”
The 80s yuppie from the opening is offically gone. In his place is a literally giant fun machine. He’s a twisting, dancing, and smiling freak. The inhibitions that haunted have all melted away.
Contrast that with the Mets final game of the season on Sunday. It’s a situation fans are all too familiar with. Out of contention and without a manager, all we can do is look towards next spring.
This season began with World Series dreams and the largest payroll baseball’s ever seen. It ended with a whisper in the wind. Nobody, and I mean nobody, thought it would turn out like this. How can a team that won 101 games last year with two Hall of Fame starting pitchers fail so consistently? It makes no damn sense.
Well I need the Mets to start making sense. I don’t want wild, I don’t want funky, and I don’t want giant suits. The Mets have been unstable and unserious for so long that’s it’s become part of who we are. We need a solid organization that tries to win without taking shortcuts.
It’s only been three years and I believe in the organization under Steve Cohen. Last season’s failure wasn’t the result of wild hubris. Some years the vibes are off. It happens. Baseball beats all of us. It’s part of the game’s tragic beauty.
But my fellow Steve is a fan as well as an owner. He recognizes the goal is stability on the field and the organization. The goal is win so much that it’s boring.
Winning the World Series is also part of the sport’s tragic beauty. For how could any of us touch that remarkable heaven and not ache for it every day forever after?
Save the drama and the wild things for the movies. Give me a boring baseball team every night.
Stop Making Sense is playing in theaters now.
CODA
Thank you to everyone who stopped by here during the season. Nothing is more important or precious than time. So I appreciate you spending some of yours on this foolishness. Your comments and words of encouragement were deeply felt and appreciated.
I didn’t have a specific goal when I started this blog. But it’s led to some truly wonderful things which you’ll be hearing about soon. My life has literally changed because of it and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s next.
In the immediate, I’m gonna take a breath. But I’ll be back. Stay tuned…
