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3 false Mets narratives about the team’s offseason and players that need to go away
Put these narratives about the Mets to rest.
Fake news, sad, or both? There are a lot of false narratives about the New York Mets. Certainly plenty of agent created rumors about their offseason plans or bogus claims about players not even worth reacting to, there are a few we can analyze more thoroughly and conclude there is no smoking gun.
These three false narratives about the Mets, their offseason, and players need to go away.
1) False: The Mets didn’t spend money this offseason
But the Mets did spend. They spent a lot. Their payroll will be one of the top two in 2024 with a big asterisk because of what the Los Angeles Dodgers have done with paying Shohei Ohtani what the Mets will offer Joey Wendle.
The false narrative that the Mets didn’t spend money this offseason is largely based on how they’ve spent. They’ve approached things differently. Rather than hand out more high AAV deals on short-term contracts, they’ve gone short at market rate. David Stearns has been careful about not locking the team into any long-term deals. If you don’t like it, that’s a whole different argument.
The Mets were even willing to spend more. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was always going to get a matching offer from the Dodgers and he was going to play for them. There’s nothing the Mets could’ve done about this.
You may not agree with how the Mets have spent money in free agency this offseason, but to claim they haven’t paid players is completely false. They’ve added to an already high payroll.
Many of the best free agents the Mets could’ve targeted also came with the loss of draft pick compensation. Unwilling to go there with several of those guys, it was about more than money as to why they avoided certain free agents.
2) False: Francisco Lindor isn’t a leader
Maybe the most annoying talking point about the Mets is on leadership. For some reason, it’s always coming up. The desire for a captain is frivolous. It’s unnecessary especially when the team has enough leaders in the locker room.
More often a target than anyone else of not having the leadership skills needed is Francisco Lindor. Based on what exactly? How he handled things in 2021?
Lindor got off to a bad start with the Mets every way possible in year one. He wasn’t a good player. He wasn’t well-liked by fans because he got in a fight with Jeff McNeil and was one of the masterminds behind giving the fans a thumbs down. He was immature and a poor leader for them that season. He has grown up a lot since.
We continually see Lindor do more than the bare minimum. His early work at spring training with the young players isn’t just for the cameras. His incentive to win and make his teammates better is what he’s doing this for.
Francisco Lindor works with Mark Vientos in Port St. Lucie 🧠 pic.twitter.com/KnRL9lqsTL
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) February 7, 2024
Francisco Lindor and Jett Williams man shortstop together 👀 pic.twitter.com/fN8axQZ1pP
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) February 7, 2024
Lindor’s leadership has grown each season with the Mets. Necessary as the shortstop, staying focused and checking in with pitchers as he sees fit is a common occurrence. Zero leaks about Lindor being a bad locker room presence have come out since year one with the Mets. Those things don’t stay behind closed doors forever.
3) False: The Mets will bad contract swap with anyone
Some fans are still insistent that the Mets will always be a team willing to take on a bad contract. Well, not really. The last bad one they actually added in a trade was with the Seattle Mariners and Robinson Cano. This was under a different ownership regime. We’ve gone through multiple front office changes as well.
Whenever a contract gets ugly somewhere else, the suggestion becomes to trade the guy to the Mets. Ironic enough for Alanis Morrissette (rain on your wedding day isn’t ironic, it just sucks), the Mets have been on the other side of these trades in recent years as the ones dumping the bad contracts.
We’re still getting to know Stearns and how he’ll operate. His situation has completely changed. He has gone from the need to be a small market wunderkind to having the financial backing of a beloved owner with deep pockets. Meeting somewhere in the middle with smart moves and expensive ones when needed is the outcome we’re hoping for.
Taking on a bad contract doesn’t seem to fall into either file. It typically isn’t smart. It’s unnecessary when your team can pay for a player in free agency anyway.
While the Mets may always end up in one of these deals as the buyer of a bad contract, there’s no history of it. In other words: stop trying to dump your bad players on us.
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