3 NY Mets decisions that led to the team's season spiraling out of control

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As we move past the halfway mark of the 2023 Major League Baseball season, there is plenty of blame to go around in regard to why the New York Mets are regarded as one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory. With a record-shattering payroll and proven Major League talent, the Mets have found themselves near the bottom of the National League standings.

I believe there are 3 decisions that helped contribute to the Mets' lack of success this season and where the majority of the blame outside of the players' performance could be highlighted. I believe one of the biggest issues for the Mets began this offseason.

1) First NY Mets poor decision: Lack of depth built in the bullpen

While General Manager Billy Eppler did a great job of securing Edwin Diaz for the foreseeable future as well as bringing in David Robertson and Adam Ottavino, there was no other real depth built in the bullpen to sustain any type of injury or performance issues. Once Closer Edwin Diaz went down back during the WBC, Robertson became the defacto closer and everybody's roles around the bullpen changed. Outside of Robertson, the entire bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster.

Billy Eppler had mentioned towards the end of the offseason that he wanted controllable arms to round out the bullpen to provide the Mets with roster flexibility. Well, the Mets got the roster flexibility they wanted, but they have dealt with performance issues from almost every single reliever they have thrown out on the mound.

Most of the time quantity doesn't equal quality and that is a huge area that the Mets missed the mark on this past offseason. I believe the front office would've approached the offseason completely differently if they knew what they knew now in regards to shopping in the discount aisle for bullpen depth with the way the season has gone.

2) Second NY Mets poor decision: Buck Showalter's in-game managing

This could be categorized as decisions rather than the word decision with the amount of in-game mismanagement we have seen this season. While I believe the front office is to blame for the vast majority of the Mets' failures this season, Manager Buck Showalter is not completely at fault either. Last season it seemed like whichever move Buck Showalter made during the course of the game, it always worked out brilliantly for the Mets, while this season it has been the complete opposite of that.

Whether it has been his bullpen management, or pulling the Mets rookies to be pinch-hit for during the middle of the game, many of his moves have left Mets fans scratching their heads consistently as they almost always go against the Mets. There are also times he will use 3 players for one substitution which then immediately depletes the Mets bench.

For example, he will pinch-hit for Brett Baty with a player like Daniel Vogelbach and if Vogelbach gets on base he has to use a pinch-runner such as Luis Guillorme on the base paths. It just gets to the point where it seems like we are overthinking strategy rather than just letting Baty hit for himself in that position.

The constant in-game mismanagement has been the primary reason many Mets fans have been calling for Showalter's firing this season as it seems the Mets play themselves into more and more losses by the moves they make, especially out of the bullpen as well. The Mets completely blew a game in Philadelphia a week ago by not bringing in their best relievers to shut the game down and brought in many back-end bullpen options that completely imploded.

Unless this ship turns around somehow someway in the coming days and weeks, it's fair to wonder if Showalter will be brought back next season after the number of terrible decisions that cost the Mets games in June.

3) Third NY Mets poor decision: Mismangement of Daniel Vogelbach

I should preface that Daniel Vogelbach in no way is the sole reason why the Mets are where they are, but his lack of production out of his spot in the lineup which is reserved for one of your most consistent bats hurt the Mets. Vogelbach consistently struggled to put the ball in play as the vast majority of the time he went down looking at strike three, and he was consistently put in the middle of the Mets lineup.

Meanwhile, the Mets chose to sit red-hot prospect Mark Vientos for Vogelbach in the DH position multiple times, which never allowed Vientos to get into any type of rhythm while Vogelbach continued to struggle at the plate. The Mets' refusal to sit Vogelbach while Mets fans watched other teams' young talent bloom upon their call-ups would send Mets Twitter into a frenzy on a nightly basis.

The Mets also chose to give Vogelbach a mental reset for about a week, but instead of placing him on the injured list to give him time to clear his head, the Mets played short-handed on the bench for multiple nights. It made no sense for a team that was already struggling to keep one of their ineffective players' on the bench unavailable for numerous days whit the inability to fill that spot with somebody who was capable of playing.

Vogelbach hasn't been the best fit for this season's roster, but for some reason, he continues to hit behind Pete Alonso in the lineup, as well as play every day which has hurt the Mets more than helped in regards to their lineup construction.

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