4 ways the Mets can prove they're anywhere near becoming the East Coast Dodgers
To be the best, you need to first behave like them.
![Jul 16, 2023; New York City, New York, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Jason Heyward (23) is](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_5047,h_2838,x_0,y_526/c_fill,w_752,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/3/01hhc9zg19gtmds4e5j2.jpg)
The plan for the New York Mets to become an East Coast version of the Los Angeles Dodgers hasn't exactly come to fruition. The Dodgers are perennial favorites every year. Somehow they manage to always contend.
This hasn't been the case for the Mets in the current Steve Cohen era. Two out of three seasons have been below .500. Despite spending money on the roster, they've come up short. Well short.
Becoming the East Coast Dodgers is a good outline of what to do. And if they hope to ever achieve this goal, these four types of moves are the ones to make.
1) The Mets can become more Dodgers East if they steal a fan favorite from another city
Freddie Freeman was the Chipper Jones of his day with one major exception, he left the Atlanta Braves. The Dodgers ended up as the winners in the Freeman sweepstakes and haven’t looked back. Although the Braves did manage to get an incredible replacement, Matt Olson, it was a power move by the Dodgers to be the ones who secured Freeman only months after he helped the Braves win a championship.
This is exactly the type of move we’d love to see the Mets make. They’ve been in the market for big time free agents. They’ve signed plenty of short-term deals. The difference is there was never much emotion attached to it. A player the Mets have signed was never the heart and soul of his organization. The Houston Astros basically let Justin Verlander walk away for a couple of months. Max Scherzer finished his 2021 season with the Dodgers and had no real attachment.
The Mets have been competitive in bidding wars but steered away from the emotional battles. It’s villainous in a way. Many Braves fans still hold a grudge against Freeman. Los Angeles Angels fans may feel resentment toward Ohtani.
2) The Mets need to be unafraid to unload minor league talent at the trade deadline
A major difference between the Mets and Dodgers is how they’ve behaved at recent trade deadlines. The Dodgers have frequently been buyers. The Mets have done so in 2021 and 2022 which gives us enough examples of how differently the two approached it.
Caution has been top of mind for the Mets. Rich Hill and Javier Baez weren’t nearly enough for them in 2021 to even finish at .500. The following year when they were a much better ball club, the Mets appeared even more timid. The 101 ball club didn’t make a single positive impactful trade deadline maneuver despite having some resources to get it done.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers unloaded a package in 2021 to rent Scherzer for a few months and Trea Turner for a year and a half. Due to them having one of the best farm systems in baseball on a regular basis, they didn’t have to hug any of their minor leaguers too tightly.
This has been an acceptable frustration with the Mets. They don’t trade the prospects, but they also hesitate to call any of them up. And when some of them do reach the majors, playing time is scarce.
To become the Dodgers East, the Mets need to figure out when it’s appropriate to strike a blockbuster trade.
3) The Mets need to find consistency in the manager role
This one is a tough one to achieve. Consistency in the manager role is rare in this league. You don’t want to hang onto a loser for too long. You also shouldn’t execute prematurely.
After seven years of Terry Collins through the 2017 campaign, the Mets have gone through skippers in pairs of two. Mickey Callaway, Luis Rojas, and Buck Showalter each got a pair of chances before losing their jobs. Now it’s Carlos Mendoza’s chance. He needs to be the guy if they want any chance of feeling a little more like the Dodgers.
As hot as the seat has become under Dave Roberts at times in Los Angeles, having his singular voice is beneficial. He has been with the team since 2016. They’ve never missed the playoffs since. Their fewest total of wins are the 91 they had in that first season outside of the shortened 2020 year when they won the World Series after a dominant .717 winning percentage pre-playoffs.
The Dodgers have been so good for a decade now that they’ve only not finished in first place once from 2013-2023. That was in 2022 when their 106 victories was one shy of the San Francisco Giants.
Mets fans have the desire for much more than regular season dominance, though. A single championship despite all of the success doesn’t exactly have the Dodgers faithful clamoring for a statue of Roberts. It’s still a necessary step to achieve some level of success. The players will always change. The manager can remain the same. It’s Mendoza’s turn to prove he is the guy.
4) The NY Mets should fight as dirty/creatively with the payroll as the Dodgers
Cohen should be stewing over what the Dodgers did by deferring $68 million per year of Shohei Ohtani’s contract. It’s not so much because he would have done the same but more about how he wishes he was the owner of the team who did it first. Thankfully, it does put a target on the Dodgers and not the Mets. Cohen has had a watchful eye on him since day one. If he did something as sneaky like this first, the Mets would be moved to Montreal.
It’s a dirty yet creative tactic by the Dodgers who circumnavigate the rules. Others will follow their lead. Undoubtedly, Cohen will look to do something similar if not exactly the same.
A can of worms has been opened up and to think the richest owner in the game won’t take a bite is insane. It won’t happen this offseason as the Mets don’t have that superstar to pay when he’s in his 40s instead of prime years. What about the Mets try this with extensions on younger players or even rework Francisco Lindor’s deal to allow them to creep under the luxury tax threshold each season? Surely David Stearns spent some time these last few days reading over the rule book trying to get a start on how they too can manipulate.
Hats off to the Dodgers for bending the rules.
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