NY Mets Darkest Timeline: A bleak look at an alternative path

I know New York Mets fans are feeling the agita in their chest. The real-life, non-fantasy, version of what has happened this season has not gone swimmingly well.

After so much anticipation and a team that somehow clawed its way into first place and remained there with a depleted roster, things have taken a turn for the worst. The team is no longer in the thick of the playoff race. Finishing above .500 could even end up as a challenge.

Still, this is not the darkest timeline we’re living in. Things could have been much worse for the 2021 Mets. Taking a positive spin on a negative idea, let’s take a look at what the darkest Mets timeline might have looked like.

Alex Rodriguez buys the Mets

Imagine if Alex Rodriguez bought the Mets. Would it have saved his relationship with Jennifer Lopez? Would Ben Affleck have taken half of the team and made them play a couple of dozen home games in Boston every year?

Before Steve Cohen bought the Mets, A-Rod was a top contender to do the same. Luckily, this didn’t happen. The circus that seems to follow Rodriguez wherever he goes never came to Flushing.

In the darkest timeline, this is exactly what befalls the Mets in 2021. Rodriguez buys the Mets, splits with J-Lo, and we watch on in horror as the team becomes TMZ fodder far more than a baseball club.

There was never any good outcome from a possible sale of the Mets to Rodriguez. More celebrity than retired athlete at this point, things are destructive in the darkest timeline starting from the top.