3 positive takeaways from the 2022 season to get us through the winter
The 2022 season was fantastic for the New York Mets and their fans—until the playoffs came and went in a single weekend.
Fans remain unhappy with how it all ended. The Mets hardly put up a fight. It was a one-hit loss that unceremoniously sent them packing for the winter.
The bad taste left in our mouths will need time to go away. During the cold months that are approaching, we can constantly be reminded of these three positive takeaways from the most recent season to help us get through any dark feelings.
1) Many of the returning Mets players had pretty awesome 2022 seasons
Let’s never forget Starling Marte was an All-Star this past year. His numbers may not have put him in the MVP conversation. However, he was undeniably one of the better outfielders in baseball.
Mark Canha was exactly what the Mets needed him to be. Even Eduardo Escobar found his swing in the last month of the season. We still have Max Scherzer, too.
Those names include the additions the Mets made last offseason who will remain with the club into 2023. Pete Alonso had a monstrous season at the plate. Jeff McNeil won the batting title.
The Mets do have a ton of free agents and not all of them will be back. The good news is they already have a core in place. They’re not building from scratch. They’re building around what they already have in place.
While we can’t expect everyone to get better in 2023, it’s not as if a sharp decline is expected. Even the more veteran players on the roster performed well and should be solid contributors in the coming season.
2) The Steve Cohen factor remains the biggest Mets advantage
The offseason is where the Mets can do the bulk of their damage to other organizations. Steve Cohen’s money expands. New people get to experience what it’s like getting a paycheck handed to them by the richest owner in the sport—at least this is how I imagine the players receive their income.
Everything is possible as long as Cohen is the majority owner of the Mets. We saw last season what happens when the team struggles and he doesn’t get his way. He goes out and signs Scherzer.
This winter, the team could become even more aggressive. They actually had a superb regular season. The offseason is their chance to fix the problems they weren’t able to at the trade deadline. It’s in the offseason with free agency when the richest ball clubs have the greatest advantage. At least on paper, the Mets should get better.
Whenever a Mets fan feels disappointed, a quick reminder of who now owns the team is all it will take to feel a bit better. Although the Mets didn’t make it past the Wild Card round, their big-spending ways in the offseason built them a 101-win ball club. Let’s go for 102 victories next year starting with a huge offseason.
3) The Mets were a well-balanced team at the plate and on the mound
The Mets didn’t win all of their games because of their offense. They didn’t claim victory exclusively because of their pitchers either. The Mets were actually a well-balanced ball club.
They scored the fifth most runs of any MLB team. Their starting pitchers had the fifth best ERA. Finishing number five in both of these statistics is pretty good. There’s room for improvement. It’s a nice place to start from.
Teams that go into the offseason more unbalanced have a far greater task ahead of them. The Mets should be looking to improve the number of runs they can score. They should also fortify the starting rotation as best they can. Bringing back guys and looking for suitable replacements is how you do the latter.
One single factor didn’t end the Mets’ postseason run. This can be taken positively or negatively. Looking at it from a glass half full perspective, it’s more realistic to get a little better in two spots than to overhaul one.
The 2022 Mets didn’t have one single strength which had to carry them—as much as we had expected it to be the Jacob deGrom-Max Scherzer combination at the top of the rotation. This team won in a variety of ways. Add a little power, keep the rotation strong, and for goodness sake, improve drastically at the trade deadline, and things should be go well for this team in 2023.