World Series favorite Mets win one game in playoffs
Despite having the second-highest Opening Day payroll in the league, multiple starting pitchers who are shoe-in Hall of Famers, and the highest-percentage chance of winning the World Series (according to FanGraphs) as late as September 25, the 2022 New York Mets did not win their division. They did not win a playoff round. They won one game in the playoffs, and now face a daunting offseason where many of their best players need new contracts.
Ending the season empty-handed seems like a massive missed opportunity, one that was caused by failures from both players and the front office.
The Mets continued their late season fade and fell to the Padres in the Wild Card round, leaving a lot of questions for the offseason ahead. It’s hard to overstate how disappointing a season this was for the Mets, a team that many people considered on the inside track for at least a pennant. This was a team that was all-in, and needed to be all in, but failed to fully commit at multiple points this season. Whether it was the trade deadline, where fears of repeating last year’s disastrous Pete Crow-Armstrong trade may have forced them into cowardly standing pat, or it was down the stretch, where a sweep at home by the Cubs (a team flirting with 100 losses at multiple points during the season) gave way to more losing and eventually moving on from their team president, Sandy Alderson.
Postseason Grade: D
At least they won one game?
Regular Season + Postseason MVP: Francisco Lindor
Lindor was electric this season. If it wasn’t for a struggle with a back injury earlier in the year, he would be an MVP candidate. Despite slumping with the rest of the team towards the end of the season, he was as elite as the Mets reasonably can expect from their 300 million dollar man. In the playoffs, he didn’t have the prettiest slash line, but a clutch home run and positive baserunning combined with a generally poor performance from everyone else is enough to earn both awards.
Prominent Free Agents: Carlos Carrasco, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker, Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto, Trevor May, Mychal Givens.
Projections suggest that it would cost more than 140 million dollars to bring all of these players back. While they probably won’t bring them all back, it’s important to bring many of them or else your fourth starter becomes Joey Luchessi. If they want to upgrade? That’s going to cost a lot of money, and skyrocket you past the luxury task. I think we’ll see how deep Steve Cohen’s pockets really are this offseason.