Unbelievable Mets moments from post 2015-World Series era

Plenty of strange and unbelievable moments have happened involving the New York Mets since the team lost in the 2015 World Series. We take a look at some of those weird and frustrating moments.

There’s never a shortage of insanity for the New York Mets organization. As Kevin Strauss profiled in a previous piece on Rising Apple, the franchise has a history of weirdness.

In my last two years with Rising Apple, I’ve been lucky enough to write about some of the most unbelievable moments in team history. Some are nuts. Others, we never would have predicted were on the way.

From the absolutely insane to the events with some surprising endings, these are what I believe are the six most unbelievable Mets moments of the last two seasons.

Yoenis Cespedes is attacked by a wild boar

In the summer of 2019, Yoenis Cespedes was recovering from double heel surgery. Fans were hopeful he might make a late-season comeback. Then we learned he fell in a hole and would miss all of 2019.

There were always rumors that there was more to this story than what was reported. Considering it took place on a horse ranch, many believed Cespedes fell off one of his equines.

Flash forward a few months and we learned the truth—or at least what we are told is the truth. There was no horse involved. However, there was a wild boar.

While on his ranch in Florida, Cespedes did indeed suffer an injury while stepping in a hole. The missing piece from the original story was the reason why he did: the wild boar.

We all know the basic story by now. In some sort of interaction with a wild board, one of the highest-paid players in Major League Baseball, effectively lost a huge portion of his salary for 2019 and 2020. It made past injuries in baseball history look reasonable by comparison.

To see Cespedes miss as much time as he has since 2017 is one thing. For a wild boar to cost him a significant portion of it is a swine of another color.

Matt Harvey is traded for Devin Mesoraco

It’s not a shock that Matt Harvey was traded. Even with the amazing start to his career, anyone can get traded. It’s what he was traded for which lands him on this list.

Back in early 2018, the Dark Knight was struggling as a starting pitcher for the Mets. The team attempted to move him to the bullpen. This didn’t go over very well with the former New York star. The relationship between Harvey and the organization became worse than ever, eventually leading to him getting designated for assignment.

Harvey wasn’t released from the team post-DFA. Instead, he ended up in a trade to the Cincinnati Reds for catcher Devin Mesoraco.

Even in his brief peak, Mesoraco was never the level of player Harvey was. And by the time he arrived to the Mets, he was an obvious backup catcher and nothing more.

Meanwhile, the Reds were hopeful Harvey had something left in the tank. They haven’t been afraid of taking on fallen stars in recent years. It worked out well for them in 2019 when they acquired Sonny Gray from the New York Yankees. They weren’t so lucky with Harvey who walked into free agency after a mediocre 2018 campaign.

Harvey did get another contract for the 2019 season but put together a miserable year with the Los Angeles Angels. His future in the major leagues is now questionable. During the 2015 World Series, nobody would have guessed he’d burn out this quickly let alone only net the Mets a catcher with little value.

Jason Vargas threatens to fight a reporter

The 2019 Mets were a fun team. Their second-half run into contention won back plenty of fans. Newcomers and rookies helped turn an otherwise bleak season around.

Well before these great moments, there was an incident in Chicago I’m not sure anyone expected would happen. Following a heartbreaking loss to the Chicago Cubs, manager Mickey Callaway got into a verbal altercation with Newsday’s Tim Healey. Starting pitcher Jason Vargas came to his skipper’s defense, going as far as to challenge Healey to a fight.

The New York media is tough. They’ll eat you alive if you stink at your job. They were never afraid to criticize Callaway and Vargas certainly received plenty of jeers for his horrible 2018 campaign.

The fallout from this incident put a brief black eye on the franchise. Callaway gave a half-hearted apology while Vargas was far less willing to admit fault. Vargas was fined by the Mets and eventually traded in July.

Of all the players on the Mets I would expect to challenge someone to a fight, Vargas was not near the top of the list.

I’ll give an honorable mention to Brodie Van Wagenen’s chair-throwing incident as well.

Tim Tebow makes it to AAA

Tim Tebow’s dream of becoming a Major League Baseball player isn’t over yet. As of the start of 2020, he has made it as far as Triple-A.

Of course, his path toward MLB is different from most. He’s a salesman by just taking the field. His numbers wouldn’t justify a yearly promotion, but the amount of tickets he sells in minor league cities everywhere has certainly helped convince the Mets to keep him around.

Tebow began his minor league career hitting .226 in 2017 at two Single-A levels. Despite the poor debut, he was promoted to Double-A in 2018.

To the surprise of many, he actually succeeded. Tebow slashed .273/.336/.399 for Binghamton. It was a remarkable improvement.

Things didn’t go so well for Tebow in 2019 in Triple-A. The talent finally seemed to outmatch him completely. He hit only .163/.240/.255. For the second straight year, he also suffered a season-ending injury.

Tell any Mets fan in 2015 that Tebow would have a spot on the organization’s Triple-A roster and they might suggest you get help from a professional.

The manager and owner that never were

When I began putting this article together, there were two final points I wanted to get to. One was about how Carlos Beltran would become the manager and the Wilpons would actually sell the team.

My procrastination paid off. By the time I got around to this final unbelievable moment, it became even more unbelievable.

You see, Beltran never managed a game for the Mets. Shortly after he was hired, the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal broke. He stepped down from the position months later when suspensions were handed out by MLB and ownership was likely pressured to move on from him.

Speaking of ownership; they’re no longer on the way out. In December, we all learned the team was up for sale and minority owner Steve Cohen would take over. The sale fell through.

The whys of this aren’t yet fully known. However, it’s an easy puzzle to piece together. Jeff Wilpon apparently wanted to keep control of the team even when the ownership shifted to Cohen. I’m not sure how this would constitute Cohen as the owner when he doesn’t even get the final say.

In an offseason without many big transactions, these two changes gave fans hope. Beltran was a well-respected man in baseball and someone we thought could lead with his intelligence for the game. Cohen had billions of dollars and wouldn’t have possibly let a single free agent he wanted sign with another team. He’d scoff at the luxury tax.

The best-laid plans of mice and Mets went astray. Neither ever did a thing in their expected role.

For this to happen once to any team is unbelievable. In back-to-back months for the same organization, it’s just getting ridiculous.

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There are plenty more unbelievable Mets moments from the last half-decade. Which one shocked you the most?