3 reasons why this Buck Showalter quote is insane

The New York Mets are a team that mailed it in at the trade deadline. They traded plenty of their veterans including Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. They also traded players on expiring deals as they looked forward to 2024. This was not the wrong decision as the Mets never showed any reason why this team was to be trusted had the team not sold.

With the Mets giving up on 2023, the focus should've turned to the young guys a long time ago simply to see if they can contribute in 2024. We know Francisco Alvarez will catch, but can Brett Baty finish strong? Can Mark Vientos hit enough to DH? Can Ronny Mauricio play well enough at second base? These are questions we need answered.

We finally got all four of these young players in the lineup on Tuesday in Washington and the Mets wound up exploding for 11 runs. Sure, it was against Patrick Corbin, but 11 runs should be incredibly encouraging. Unfortunately, it seems like we won't see much of the young guys all bunched together like we did on Tuesday as Showalter told Gary Cohen that he needs to run out different lineups against contenders because he "owes it to the teams they're contending with." This was wrong for so many reasons.

1) This Buck Showalter quote is insane because the NY Mets need to get looks at their young players

No, the Mets primary concern should not be who squeaks into the final playoff spot. Who cares if the Giants or Reds make it? Showalter seems to think the Mets are out of it which is a whole separate issue, but the fact is, they should only be focused on themselves.

With the Mets selling and looking ahead to 2024, their goal should be to get players in the lineup as much as possible that will actually play a role next season and beyond. Players like Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, and Ronny Mauricio fit that bill.

The Mets wasted pretty much the entire month of August playing guys like Danny Mendick, Jonathan Arauz, and Rafael Ortega virtually every day while Baty and Mauricio were in AAA. Thankfully, Baty, Mauricio, and Vientos are up now, and they need to be playing every day. With the Mets set to face only contenders for the rest of the season, it's unlikely for this to take place as we should expect a lot of Daniel Vogelbach at DH and Jonathan Arauz at third base.