1 quality the Mets and Yankees shared this season not many expected they would

Enough with the “Los Angeles Dodgers East” talk. The New York Mets are actually a lot more like the New York Yankees or so they could set out to be.

How much do the Mets and Yankees really have in common? Aside from sharing a city, both team’s general managers seemed to hit the bullseye with multiple scrap heap additions in the offseason and after Opening Day.

We know the magic Jose Iglesias brought to Queens off of a minor league contract. On a much larger scale, how Sean Manaea and ex-Yankees pitcher Luis Severino performed could qualify. Many of the lower level scrapheap additions by the Mets ended up rusting by the time the season was over with. Danny Young didn’t glisten nearly as much. Meanwhile in the Bronx, the Yankees continue to rely on a roster full of guys they look like David Stearns additions.

The Yankees picked through the junkyard better than the Mets did

Who saw this coming from Luke Weaver? The most impactful arm in the Yankees bullpen right now, he posted a 2.89 ERA in 84 regular season innings all out of the bullpen. The 31-year-old is actually a player who returned to the Yankees from the 2023 roster. He tossed just over a baker’s dozen innings for them in 2023 then re-signed only to become Aaron Boone’s most trusted bullpen arm in the playoffs.

As if that wasn’t fantastical enough, the midseason acquisition of Tim Hill has given them a lockdown lefty reliever. He had a 2.05 ERA in 44 regular season innings. And to think he wasn’t even good enough to remain with the Chicago White Sox who cut him early in the year.

Low-key the most dissatisfying for Mets fans might be to see how well Jake Cousins has performed. Signed by David Stearns as a free agent back in 2019 when he was with the Milwaukee Brewers, this would have been a reunion we’d all sign up to see. Cousins signed with the White Sox in the offseason but was purchased by the Yankees on March 31 away from them. Talk about dodging some anguish. He had a 2.37 ERA in 38 innings this season.

We have to include him even if he vanished from the postseason roster. How did Michael Tonkin turn things around with the Yankees? A two-time member of the Mets this year, he was a satisfying long man option for the Mets when camp broke. A few early beatings in extra innings had him sent to the waiver wire. His 5.14 ERA in 7 innings with the Mets eventually morphed into a 3.38 ERA in 56 regular season innings for the Yankees. He even managed to strike out just over a batter per inning.

Every time a team makes a small trade, free agent signing, or waiver pickup, the sarcastic response on social media from fans would be something along the lines of “World Series here we come!” Well, maybe in some instances, yes.