The 2022 Mets aren’t your typical baseball villains

The New York Mets are baseball villains this year. It’s not because they’re bad people. Villainy, at least in sports, has a lot to do with expectations. Expectations for the Mets this year are poking a hole through the roof.

Led by the billions of dollars at Steve Cohen’s disposal, the Mets are the new evil empire in baseball. Other teams know it. Fans in cities across the country are aware, too. The Mets have a target on their back.

Unlike so many other sports villains, this Mets club is actually likable. The team didn’t go out and sign players who simply fit in with the on-field production they needed. Character appeared to be a big part of the organization’s philosophy into what they wanted. It helped direct them where to go and who to avoid.

The 2022 Mets are a different kind of bad guys

It’s hard to dislike the personalities of most players on the Mets. You can probably pick apart the political belief or how some have behaved in the past. Overall, as a collective, they’re quite likable.

Specifically, it’s the newest members of the Mets that seem to have a lot of goodwill to their name. There hasn’t been a question about who they are off the field. The team learned a lesson last season about the importance of having a quality locker room.

The team is not without its flaws. Despite a PED suspension in the past for Starling Marte, he’s well-regarded by others around the league. Returning Robinson Cano also has his fans—most of them fellow players on the team. Other players have been around long enough to have rubbed some of their colleagues the wrong way or at least enraged a drunken fan or two in an opposing city.

The Mets are baseball villains because they have everything other ball clubs could want. They have star players. They have an owner that cares. They only got better this offseason. Baseball villainy isn’t always so black and white. The Mets are wearing grey trunks.

This isn’t a roster of overpaid veterans who clash with the media (at least not yet) or pick fights with fans on social media (again, not yet). There’s a classiness to them. Even if Pete Alonso is a little too vulgar for some people’s taste, it’s all in good fun.