The blame game has begun for the New York Mets. Yesterday, they fired their respected pitching coach, Dave Eiland, and bullpen coach Chuck Hernandez. In an all-too-familiar happening within the Mets organization, Eiland and Hernandez are this year’s scapegoats for a team that has played badly.
There is no more proof needed than the events of yesterday. 82-year-old Phil Regan is the new pitching coach, and he retired from coaching in 2015. Ricky Bones — the new bullpen coach — is the old bullpen coach who was not asked back to a position he held from 2012-2018. These are hires that will not make an impact for this season, and both will likely be replaced for the 2020 season, when manager Mickey Callaway will be long gone.
What makes this worse for the Mets organization and their fan base is the continued success of their crosstown rivals the New York Yankees. The Yankees overcame a staggering amount of injuries to key players to fight their way into first place. The real question here is at whose feet does the blame fall on. There are many places where the blame deserves to go.
Mets Ownership
The Mets are owned by Fred Wilpon and his son Jeff. Jeff has the reigns and control of the franchise. The blame always has to start at the top. Over the years, there have been a lot of cases where the owners have directly held this franchise back. The Mets have long been a team that does just enough to get you interested and not enough to be a winner.
It’s the lack of acting like a big-market franchise that calls New York its home that frustrates the fan base. The Mets, just like the Yankees, have their own TV network. The Yankees go that extra mile to bring talent in. The Mets don’t do that. The Mets should be spending the same money the Yankees do every year when building their team.
Mike Piazza
We all know that famous story back in 1998, when Mike Piazza was on the trading block. Fred Wilpon did not want to trade for him because of the big contract Piazza was going to command when he became a free agent at the end of the season. Luckily for the Met fans at that time, Nelson Doubleday was a co-owner. He approved then-general manager Steve Phillips to trade for Piazza and eventually sign him to a long-term contract. Piazza stayed a Met, was beloved by the fan base, and even led them to the 2000 World Series.
Alex Rodriguez
After the 2000 World Series, Alex Rodriguez was a free agent who wanted to be a Met. As the story goes, Rodriguez met with Phillips and listed out what he was looking for in his contract. Despite the money he wanted — which ultimately led him to be, at that time, the highest paid player in the game — Phillips felt signing Rodriguez would make him the focal point of the franchise and too much of a financial risk. No matter how Rodriguez’s career ultimately ended, pairing him with Piazza would have given the Mets two of the best players in the game.
David Wright
As for the more recent years the Mets had David Wright, who had not played in a few years due to a career-threatening injury still on their payroll. Instead of buying him out and spending money to improve the team they collected the insurance money and did not reinvest it into the team.
To be fair there are instances where the Wilpons did spend the money to ultimately get burned. Jason Bay is one such instance. More recently is Yeonis Cespedes. The Yankees get burned plenty of times but they still continue to sign players.
Brodie Van Wagenen
The 2019 Mets were built by first-year general manager and former agent Brodie Van Wagenen. Not only is this Van Wagenen’s first time as a general manager, but it’s his first job ever inside of a front office of any major league team. Van Wagenen talked the talk from the day he was hired, but he has not walked the walk. Now, he looks like he is in over his head.
The Mets roster is sprinkled with Van Wagenen’s former clients. Some were on the Mets when he took the job, and some he brought in. Robinson Cano was a former client that Van Wagenen traded for despite his massive contract. Cano is also 36 years old and is coming off a season where he was suspended for taking PEDs.
The trade was made to get star closer Edwin Diaz and not Cano. However, the Mets had to take the remainder of Cano’s contract and also pony up their top two prospects. Both Cano and Diaz have been disappointments so far. Jed Lowrie — another former client — was signed, but he has yet to play one game for the Mets.
People are saying that Van Wagenen is too green for this job and lacks the smarts to get the Mets right. Smart player decisions need to be made. The Mets are destined to be sellers at the trading deadline. Van Wagenen needs to hit home runs in every trade he makes, since the majority of the moves he made in the offseason have been failures.
Mickey Callaway
Mets manager Mickey Callaway has been hearing the boos since his very first press conference in New York. There has never been a manager in Met history that gets second-guessed or criticized more often than Callaway. Many times he is at fault just for handing in the lineup card.
While he has never been a manager at any level, he was hired because the Mets did not want to pay a high salary for a more experienced manager. In addition, respected Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona endorsed Callaway.
Callaway’s decisions don’t always work out, but is that really his fault or the fault of his players not producing> Van Wagenen did not hire Callaway, but he sure will fire him by the end of the season if the Mets don’t contend — something they are well on their way to doing.
The Players
The age-old line in sports is that you can’t fire the players but can fire the coaches. This roster has greatly underachieved aside from a handful of players, most notably Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil. Those who follow this team on a day-to-day basis can’t help but cringe when that bullpen door opens and someone other than Seth Lugo comes running out.
While the Mets score four and a half runs a game, a respectable number that should be enough for a team that is built on pitching, there certainly is room for improvement. An example is Robinson Cano, who is batting third and hitting .223 so far.
The starting pitching has not been as good as they hoped for, but with an ERA just over four, it is certainly enough to win games. Only Jason Vargas has a better ERA this year compared to last season. However, the bullpen has been awful with an ERA just under 6.00. Jeurys Familia — another Van Wagenen signee — has been dreadful, with a 7.81 ERA.
Another issue has been the defense. The Mets have made the fifth-most errors in the major leagues. However, it’s more than errors. Little things, such as routine plays that don’t get made and missing the cut off man, are dooming this team. The fundamental baseball play of this team needs a lot of improvement.
Mets Outlook
There is plenty of blame to go around. The Mets have already fired two coaches of Callaway’s staff. Next will be the banishment of some players that either won’t be re-signed or those who don’t fit onto Van Wagenen’s future plans. Then, barring a major turnaround to this season, Callaway will be sent packing.
Van Wagenen, despite the feeling that he is not long for this job, will be allowed to pick a new manager. The one change that Met fans want to see is a change of ownership. Unfortunately, that won’t happen any time soon. This is potentially a very hot summer for this franchise with major decisions needing to be made. Only time will tell if Van Wagenen has the baseball smarts to make the right decisions.
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