Off-my-chest rant about Mets fans lately

This may have been posted before, I'm not sure, I don't usually use Reddit too much but needed to rant about this somewhere so bear with me (or don't, idc).

The reaction I've seen from Mets fans, particularly on twitter, has been RIDICULOUS. I get it's disappointing not getting Yamamoto. He would have been a huge get and not getting him stings. But the reactions have been INSANE. The only way you can possibly think that the Mets didn't do everything in their power to land this guy is if you just want to be mad and yell about it. The Mets:

  • Flew Steve Cohen & company to Japan to meet with Yamamoto
  • Had Yamamoto over to Cohen's house for dinner/second meeting
  • Offered him the largest contract ever to a pitcher
    • The contract was then brought to the Dodgers with a demand to match it, which the Dodgers did, and the Mets were never given an opportunity to make another offer.

Yamamoto clearly wanted to be a Dodger! And that's alright! You can't blame a 25-year-old guy from Japan for wanting to play with Shohei Ohtani on the West Coast. Anyone with a brain should be able to understand that. The Mets can offer all the money they want — but you can't force a guy to put pen to paper. They did everything they could.

And the fallout from this has been crazy. There was the report shortly after Yamamoto signed that the Mets will not be pivoting to Snell and Montgomery, which, GOOD! They're good pitchers, for sure, but neither are going to be anywhere close to worth the money they'll probably get.

Blake Snell won the Cy in 2018, then from 2019-22 never threw more than 128.2 innings in a season and averaged a 3.85 ERA & 104 ERA+, then won the Cy in 2023. Yes, two Cys are great! But he has massive injury risks and has proven to not be close to the Cy Young caliber pitcher most of the time. He had two great years, and a whole bunch of mid everywhere else.

As for Montgomery, he was great this postseason and this season in general, but he's historically a "good" pitcher not "great". He has thrown 4 "full seasons" (still no more than 188.2 innings and that was this year). In those 4 seasons — 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023 — his ERA+s are 116, 112, 113, 138. The Mets would be buying him off his career season, paying for a 138 ERA+ pitcher and likely getting a 115 ERA+ pitcher. Again, that's not bad, but he will be overpaid.

Also, both pitchers will be entering their age-31 seasons. Committing a lot of money long-term to guys their age who have inconsistent track records is just a horrible idea. The move is hopefully Imanaga and then maybe a lower tier depth guy (just not Giolito, Giolito SUCKS). But that's not really the point of this rant.

Back on topic. I see an overwhelming amount of people who are saying this is going to be a total punt year for the Mets. That they're not even going to bother trying to compete and just going to waste another year. That brings me to this question. How can you POSSIBLY think like that if you've watched even a second of playoff baseball since the new format was introduced? 2023 World Series teams: 90-win Wild Card, 84-win Wild Card. 2022 World Series teams: 106-win Div. Winner, 87-win Wild Card. 3/4 Wild Card winners. And those are just the WS teams. Anyone who has followed even a little bit knows the new format is upset central.

Are the Mets going to win 100 games in 2024? Most likely not, but guess what ... you don't need to win 100 games to get in! You barely need to have a winning record apparently! (That sucks for its own reasons but not going to get into that now).

How can anyone reasonably think a team with Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Alvarez, Kodai Senga and Edwin Diaz is already out of the playoff chase in DECEMBER??? They also have a lot of high-end minor league talent that is on the cusp. The Mets have six starting pitchers of the top-17 organizational prospects who finished at Double-A or higher last year. Once you get to Double-A, that starts to get into the territory of potentially getting a big league callup within the year. Christian Scott is one name I personally think you really need to keep an eye on too, he can be a potential future stud. And that's just pitching. The Mets have Acuna, Gilbert and Williams all at Double-A at least. Those are legitimate top-tier prospects who could potentially make an impact in 2024.

Is the team perfect? Of course not! They definitely have work to do, but to act like this season is already doomed is ridiculous. There's A LOT of talent on this roster. Jose Quintana was good when he came back, Starling Marte could have a bounceback year, hell even Adrian Houser is a sneaky good pickup for the back end of the rotation.

This brings me to another side point. I have never seen a fanbase hate depth as much as this one. The Mets could sign someone to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training and fans will come at Stearns' throat for "shopping in the bargain bin" and stuff like that. Like, are you new? Do you remember how many injuries happen during a season. Every team needs depth. There is literally no downside to signing a bunch of guys to nothing deals and stashing them in AAA to be called on when needed. Everyone loves to talk about how important depth is ... except when you're actually signing it, apparently.

Back to the main point. They shouldn't sign a third baseman because Chapman is the only "good" one anyway and he kinda sucks. Give Baty another year, or at least part of it, to earn the position. He was too highly regarded a prospect to ditch this fast. So not a fan of Vientos, think he absolutely sucks, but I guess give him some at-bats too. What do I know, I'm not a scout. Don't get an outfielder either. The big options left are Teoscar Hernandez and Jorge Soler, and neither are that exciting. Hernandez is clearly declining (.919 OPS in 2020, .870 '21, .807 '22, .741 '23) and is a 200+ strikeout, under-40 walk bat. Just disgusting, already 31, and players with that profile drop off so hard. Soler meanwhile was great with the juiced balls in 2019, bad in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and then very good again in 2023. Like Snell, what player will you really be getting, especially at his age-32 season. You let Marte try to have a bounceback, and then wait for your kids who are close. Maybe you sign Justin Turner, he can DH and be insurance at 3B if Baty sucks. And, most importantly, it would be a 1-year deal. Oh, and also, bring him home!

My dark horse candidate for 100+ MLB games in 2024 is Drew Gilbert. He played most of 2023 in Double-A and was very good. Should start 2024 in Triple-A, and if he's playing well, what's the point of keeping him in 'Cuse? Just bring him to the show. Also a dark horse for me: Rhylan Thomas. A truly professional bat and very good glove. Could be a McNeil-esq player in the outfield. Dude had 28 strikeouts in 346 PA's last year across 3 levels. A little further out, but a name Mets fans should get to know. Essentially though, they have a lot of legitimate prospects who are actually not too far out. The Mets haven't had that in a long time. PLEASE don't clog up the lineup with a bunch of 30+ year-olds on bloated contracts. The Mets seem like they understand that, but Mets fans don't seem to understand that you can't sign half a dozen players to $20M+ a year deals every offseason. The options are not that good this year. So don't spend bad money.

The point is, anyone who acts like the Mets 2024 season is already doomed is just complaining to complain. Are they going to go into the season as big-time WS candidates like they have recently? No, but maybe that's a good thing because it clearly didn't work. I commend Cohen for spending the money and trying to take the shortcut, but it didn't work. Now, with Stearns finally in the organization, they're starting to build the right way. But Stearns can't build it all in three months, it takes time.

And don't even get my started on the "cohen is the wilpons all over again" nonsense. If that was true he wouldn't have racked up the $100 million luxury tax bill he did. Yeah, it was in a losing season, but it was clearly not for lack of effort. Sometimes just stuff doesn't work out. The moaning and whining and complaining (yes I know that's what I'm doing right now too) is just exhausting and actually making it embarrassing to be a Mets fan right now. They sound like a bunch of entitled children throwing a fit that their daddy wouldn't buy them a toy they wanted even though the store was sold out and the dad couldn't if he wanted to.

This is way too long, I apologize. But I also probably forgot a lot of stuff I wanted to say. Whatever, end rant.

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TLDR: Mets fans are making it embarrassing to be associated with them lately, use one ounce of critical thinking and don't act like the 2024 season is already doomed.