New York Mets give us three big reasons to be thankful on Thanksgiving

Despite a disappointing 2018 season, the New York Mets still give us a few reasons to feel thankful.

On Thanksgiving, it is common for people to sit around the table and state what exactly they are most thankful for in their lives. As New York Mets fans, it can be quite difficult to find that one reason to keep on cheering when everything seems to be falling apart. 2018 was no different, but there are some reasons to keep on believing.

Fans often joke that it’s tough being a Mets fan, they are not kidding. From epic division collapses to falling short in the 2015 World Series it has been a tough couple of years.

But it is always good to look towards the future in tough times. Whether it’s one particular player that can brighten up a season or players yet to make their way to the big leagues, there are reasons to be thankful.

Reason 1: Jacob deGrom

Let’s just get the obvious reason out of the way on why we should be thankful, Jacob deGrom. deGrom had a phenomenal 2018 season that ended with him winning the 2018 National League Cy Young award. It’s been a tough season to watch with lots of players getting injured and underperforming, but deGrom was that one constant.

Every fifth day we knew we were in for a treat as deGrom pulled off some historic feats in 2018. deGrom made us forget about losing every fifth day as he gave his best effort and gave a chance for the Mets to win every time. deGrom became arguably one of the best pitchers in baseball and maybe one of the greatest Mets pitchers as well.

The Mets have had a lot of talented arms in their history. But deGrom is one of the best in recent memory. When everyone was talking about the futures of Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler years ago no one knew what we were getting out of deGrom. Who would have thought he was the best out of all the arms that were being talked about. Even dating years earlier it’s easy to see that deGrom was better than the likes of Jon Niese and Dillon Gee.

R.A. Dickey gave the Mets some great seasons and so did Johan Santana, but deGrom has been a consistent force the Mets have been lacking for several years. Even though 2018 was his superstar year, we expected this out of deGrom ever since his electrifying debut against the Yankees.

As mentioned before deGrom gave us a historic season to watch in 2018 which who knows if we’ll ever see anything like that ever again. As we grow older we can tell future generations about the crazy 2018 season deGrom had and cherish the rare onfield bright spot for the Mets in 2018.

Now if the Mets and deGrom could also work out an extension I’m sure that would make us all extremely grateful.

Reason 2: Peter Alonso & Andres Gimenez

Another thing Mets fans can be thankful for this year is the rising prospects of Peter Alonso and Andres Gimenez.

All year long Met fans have been screaming for the team to call up the first base prospect from Triple-A Las Vegas as he continued to mash the baseball.

Alonso started the year in Double-A Binghamton and hit 15 HR with 52 RBI in 65 games played. He also put together a batting average of .314 and an on-base percentage of .440.

More from Rising Apple

• NY Mets News: Marcus Stroman sees “potential fit” with the Angels
• NY Mets were too “seek” and not enough “destroy” last winter
• NY Mets: 1 trade target to consider from each 100-loss team
• NY Mets: Top 12 free agents the team should look to sign this winter
• NY Mets: Jeff Wilpon’s legacy continues to plague the Amazins

His BA and OBP did dip once he was promoted as in 67 games for Triple-A he hit .265 and had an OBP of .355. What did not take a hit was the power in his bat as we went on to hit 21 HR in Las Vegas and drive in 67 RBI.

Gimenez started the year as the Mets number one overall prospect. Gimenez was a little bit of an unknown coming into the season with the word being he was an average size infielder that was all glove and no bat.

Well, the bat showed up in 2018 as he started the year in Single-A St. Lucie and hit for a BA of .282 with 6 HR and 30 RBI in 85 games played. He also had 20 doubles in his stint in Single-A. The power numbers did take a dive when he was promoted to Double-A Binghamton, as he hit 0 HR but did drive in 16 runs with 9 doubles. He finished out the year with the Rumble Ponies hitting .277 with an OBP of .344.

These two kids are players to keep your eye on going forward as even though they may not start the year with the big club in 2019, it may not be too long until they get the call-up.

Alonso’s call-up seems like it would happen first due to his position not really being held down by anyone and the Mets need for an impact bat like his. Gimenez call-up may take a little longer due to the logjam in the middle infield for New York.

It’s not often you get an exciting prospect to talk about or even witness develop and the Mets are fortunate to have two of them. Especially when Alonso fits a need that the Mets really need it could be a lot of fun to watch his career unfold.

We also understand prospects are just prospects and there might be a chance that they fail and don’t pan out. But for now, we will remain thankful that there are a couple of in-house options that could help the Mets very soon.