Mets are losing out this offseason to the rival Braves and Phillies

It’s tough to have patience in the offseason when your biggest rivals are making moves. This is the situation with the New York Mets right now.

Have you ever been to a hockey team and seen the hometown go on a power play? And instead of taking a shot at the net, they just keep passing the puck back and forth? And then the crowd starts yelling, “Shoot! Shoot the puck!” This is kind of how I feel right now about the New York Mets offseason.

The potential future ownership change aside, it has been a quiet winter in Flushing. The team signed Chasen Shreve, Jarrett Parker, and Max Moroff to minor league deals. I have no doubt we’ll see at least one of them play for the Mets in 2020 at some point.

On the major league side of things, they did decide to bring back Brad Brach. I like the move. But it has been hardly an aggressive offseason like we saw last winter.

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Worse than anything, the Mets are getting beaten up by the division rival Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies this winter. Both of those squads have been busy changing things up for the better.

Meanwhile, the Mets are possibly looking to dump some bad salaries they inked just one offseason ago. Other teams are adding. The Mets are trying to erase mistakes from the recent past.

To an already defending National League East Championship roster, the Braves have re-signed relievers Chris Martin and Darren O’Day and brought in Will Smith to join them. In the rotation, Cole Hamels will help improve the results early on.

Perhaps more painful to Mets fans than anyone else, the team also signed Travis d’Arnaud months after reinventing himself with the Tampa Bay Rays. Surely, he helps beat the Mets at least 20 times this year despite having only 19 games scheduled against us.

A little closer in Philly, they hired the manager many of us wanted. Joe Girardi will take over for Gabe Kapler in 2020 and he appears ready to recruit as many former New York Yankees to the City of Brotherly Love that he can. I don’t mind Carlos Beltran, but Girardi has done it before and he is helping the team get hot on the tail of Didi Gregorius and should have some leverage with Dellin Betances.

Even more of a punch to the gut than the d’Arnaud deal in Atlanta is the fact that Zack Wheeler will suit up for the Phillies in 2020. We’ll see him plenty in red pinstripes for the next few years. With little hope of replacing him, we’ll have to wait until Steve Cohen’s money works its magic to find a suitable replacement.

Things could always be worse. After all, the Mets didn’t have much to do this winter. The offseason is still young anyway.

Unfortunately, in this young offseason, two of the biggest rivals have acquired multiple players the Mets could have used and some old friends (d’Arnaud) we wished the best for but in an American League city.

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I feel like my hockey team is on the power play right now. Instead of shooting the puck, Brodie Van Wagenen and company are passing it back and forth at the blue line. I can already hear our goalie smacking his stick against the ice to warn us how little time is left.