The Mets pitching staff has been a mess.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, New York Mets fans have a sour taste in their mouths.
Though Mets fans are known to be some of the hardest to please in sports, all their disappointment is warranted right now. Despite new manager Mickey Callaway having said all the right things since replacing Terry Collins last month, the page won’t truly be turned until the first pitch is thrown next April.
When that pitch is thrown, it may represent the final chance this once promising group has at reaching the success level that seemed inevitable not too long ago.
Just two years ago, this Mets pitching staff seemed primed to dominate baseball for years to come. Despite a disappointing finish to a magical season, in which the Mets overcame the odds to win the National League pennant, the future was as bright as ever.
Matt Harvey, in his first year back from Tommy John surgery, gave Mets fans every reason to believe he hadn’t missed a beat.
Rookie sensation Noah Syndergaard burst onto the scene, and the described “hook from hell” was every bit as good as advertised.
Jacob deGrom proved that his Rookie of the Year award-winning season was no fluke, and was an ace that few expected.
The Long Island native Steven Matz was more than just a feel-good story, but an overpowering force on the mound, if he could just stay healthy.
And Bartolo Colon was hardly thought as part of the future, but more than capable enough until Zack Wheeler eventually returned from years dealing with injuries.
For most of their history, the Mets had been playing second fiddle to the cross-town Yankees, but it finally seemed as if the Mets would not only take over New York but baseball as well.
The game is fickle though, and just as quickly as they rose to the top, it seemed they returned to mediocrity. Two injury-laden seasons later, it’s made or break time for the Mets.
Once the toast of the town, Matt Harvey has gone from starting the All-Star Game to a candidate for the worst pitcher in baseball. Set to enter free agency after next season, Harvey has everything to prove in what’s likely his final season with the Mets. Beyond that, Harvey may be fighting to keep his career alive, something hard to believe considering his former dominance.
When healthy, deGrom and Syndergaard have to be mentioned among the best 1-2 combinations in baseball. Unfortunately, the pair has taken turns on the disabled list over the last two years, only giving glimpses of their capabilities when healthy together.
Of the Mets rotation, none broke onto the scene with more immediate success than Matz. His first start was a Mets classic, but he found himself on the disabled list just weeks later. There were fears surrounding his injury history before he arrived, and he’s done nothing to dispel them since. He was shut down midseason in 2017, after months of terrible outings, which he later attributed to more nagging injuries. Matz’ body isn’t getting any younger, and if he can’t show an ability to stay on the field next season, it’s unlikely he ever will.
It seems like ages ago, that the Mets were the trendy pick for the next powerhouse in baseball. In reality, it was just before last season. 2016 was chalked up to unlucky injuries, and the Mets couldn’t possibly catch the bug again in 2017, could they? They answered that question relatively early when the superstar Syndergaard saw his season cut short after just 7 starts. He’d return out of the bullpen in September, but by then any playoff hopes were long gone.
The Mets aren’t a surprise team anymore. Once a group gives baseball a taste of their potential, they’re never a surprise again. The Mets surprise has been replaced by disappointment. This team was supposed to win, and they still are. Since they arrived, Mets fans have known that the team would live and die by their starting rotation. The same starting pitchers who brought the Mets to the World Series in 2015 will take the bump in 2018, but the narrative couldn’t be any more different.
They’ve gone from overachievers to underachievers in just two years. For a franchise that’s rarely been expected to win since the turn of the century, anything less than a World Series title will be seen as a failure for this group of players. In a way, they’re victims of their own success. They nearly reached the mountaintop when few expected them to, and are now tasked with catching lightning in a bottle once again.
With pressure mounting, the Mets are making changes. Terry Collins is gone, along with most of the coaching staff, and to the pleasure of Mets fans, the training staff as well. The new regime looks to flip the script on the injury-plagued seasons, limiting the innings pitched by the starters, in favor of a deeper bullpen. It remains to be seen if the new formula will work, but there’s one thing we know for sure, the old formula certainly wasn’t working.
With all they’ve endured, Mets fans are a generally pessimistic bunch. But even the most jaded fans couldn’t help but envision a World Series win after they tasted success two years ago. For the first time in a while, being a Mets fan was fun. The Mets had the talent other teams dreamed of. Expectations have now faded, the “dream rotation” seems destined to be another “what could have been?” story in the Mets history books.
The Mets aren’t the talk of baseball anymore, but maybe that’s exactly what they need. They’ve surprised the baseball world before, so maybe this group has one more surprise in their systems for 2018. It’s now or never.
