3 lessons NY Mets can learn from the World Champion Texas Rangers

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The baseball season is over, but the work is just beginning for our New York Mets. Following a year in which it finished in fourth place in the N.L. East and failed to reach the playoffs, it may seem that Steve Cohen's team is a long way from enjoying the champagne-soaked success that the Texas Rangers did two nights ago. If the Mets are smart, though, they'll find that there is plenty to learn from the Rangers' run to a championship.

Lesson 1: Rebuilds can happen quickly

Just two years ago, the Rangers lost 102 games and finished 35 games behind the Astros for the N.L. West crown. Now, they're World Series champions, having bested Houston in the American League Championship Series to get there.

The Rangers aren't the only team that quickly turned its fortunes around. Their World Series opponent, the Arizona Diamondbacks, are only two years removed from losing 110 games and finishing an unsightly 55 games out of first in the N.L. West. The Baltimore Orioles lost 110 games themselves two years ago, then ascended to win the A.L. East, the toughest division in baseball, with 101 wins this year.

The lesson is clear. Turnarounds in baseball can happen more quickly than ever before, and the Mets should take notice. 2024 has been talked about as a "transitional year" for the Mets, in part because this past season, in which Steve Cohen spent more in payroll than anyone in baseball history, completely failed to live up to expectations.

The Mets finished the season 75-87, a far cry from the 60-102 record that Rangers fans had to suffer through two years ago. This year's Rangers were deserving champions, thanks in large part to an amazing 11-0 road record and 30 home runs in the postseason, but they were anything but juggernauts before the playoffs, faltering in the season's final week to fall into a tie for the division title (which they lost in a tiebreaker) with the Astros.

One of the perceived problems with the Mets this year was the team's pitching. Though it's true that they were unable to replicate the success of last season's 3.57 team ERA, their 4.30 ERA from this year was nearly identical to the Rangers' 4.28. The difference is that the Rangers were a better hitting club, as they posted a .789 OPS, good for third in the majors, while the Mets were 18th with a .730.

Two offseasons ago, the Rangers signed Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, which help transformed their lineup into one of the best in baseball. It's not ridiculous to believe that with a couple key additions to Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, and Francisco Alvarez, it could be the Mets' turn to plan a parade next October.

Lesson 2: Injuries are no excuse

The Mets' famously fatalistic fans believed that the season ended the moment Edwin Diaz's knee gave out in March, and maybe they were right. The inability of Starling Marte to get healthy this year also contributed to a season that went sideways, but injuries happen to every team, and the one left standing in the end overcame its injuries and didn't use them as an excuse.

The Rangers were struck with one injury in particular that Mets fans know all too well. Jacob deGrom, who defected from Flushing to Arlington last offseason, was seen as a key component to a Rangers team that was ready to make a playoff push after a 68-win season in 2022, but the injury-prone righty made only six starts this year, and his season was done before May.

Rather than accept a lost season in a crowded N.L West, the Rangers kept battling, leading the division for most of the year. They were buyers at the trade deadline, bringing in Aroldis Chapman from the Royals, Max Scherzer from the Mets, and Jordan Montgomery of the Cardinals, and in the end they were rewarded with their first playoff berth since 2016 and the first World Series title in franchise history.

Could the Mets have made a run if they played the trade deadline differently? We'll never know, though fans hope that the prospect haul they got from dealing Scherzer, Justin Verlander, David Robertson, Tommy Pham, Mark Canha, and Dominic Leone to playoff contenders proves worth it in the end.

The Rangers' move for Scherzer was seen as one of the biggest win-now moves of the deadline, but the veteran's impact was minimal. He missed time in September with a strained teres major muscle in his throwing shoulder, then was removed from the World Series roster with back tightness that forced him to leave his Game 3 start in the fourth inning.

The Rangers also lost their playoff MVP, Adolis Garcia, in Game 3 to an oblique strain. Garcia had been playing like a cross between Reggie Jackson and Pedro Cerrano throughout the postseason, slugging eight homers while setting the record for RBIs in a single postseason with 22.

Through it all, the Rangers persevered, overcoming the early loss of deGrom and the late-season injuries to Scherzer and Garcia to turn in a dominating playoff performance in which they eliminated four teams with a combined 374 wins between them. The Mets could learn a lot from that tenacity when the injury bug inevitably hits next year.

Lesson 3: The right manager and front office can make all the difference

There's a narrative in baseball that managers have less power than ever before. While this is true in many cases where the front office is really pulling the strings on the field, one need look no further than Bruce Bochy to see the difference a great manager can make.

Bochy was already considered one of the best managers in modern baseball after winning three World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants. Now after winning his fourth with the Rangers, he has joined a truly elite club of the best managers in baseball history. Only five other managers have won four titles, and the list reads like the most hallowed wing of Cooperstown: Casey Stengel, Joe McCarthy, Connie Mack, Walter Alston, and Joe Torre.

This was Bochy's first season with the Rangers, and in that time he engineered an improvement of 22 wins from a year ago. We've spoken about the Rangers' trade deadline moves, but the core of the team's lineup was largely the same as last year.

Bochy was hired by former Mets pitcher Chris Young, who is now the general manager of the Rangers. Young also fortified the team's pitching staff in the offseason, and though the deGrom signing hasn't worked out due to injury, the additions of Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney were unqualified successes.

Young has been with the Rangers since 2020, but he assumed total control of the team's baseball operations this year. His role now seems similar to that of recent Mets hire David Stearns, and like Young, Stearns has an all-important decision to make in his first offseason in full control.

Buck Showalter was let go by the Mets at the end of the season, and it's critical that Stearns find the right person to lead the Mets into the future. Could that be current Brewers manager Craig Counsell? The Brewers manager reportedly interviewed with the Mets yesterday, and he has been a favorite for the job for as long as Stearns, the former Milwaukee general manager, has been rumored to take over in New York.

The reality is that managers with three World Series titles aren't just sitting out there waiting to be hired. There's no Bruce Bochy out there for the Mets, so Stearns' task is a difficult one. Who is the next great manager? Is it someone that already has managerial experience, or a fresh face?

Both the Yankees and Diamondbacks won titles after Showalter left, but it will take more than superstition and random coincidence to lead the Mets to glory. Steve Cohen believes he has found the right man to lead his baseball department in David Stearns. If Stearns can find the right manager (and, like Young, sign some quality starters), the Mets could follow the Rangers' blueprint to a tee.

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