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Cold open. An empty desert. The camera pans across the desolate landscape with dust and hot dog wrappers flying up in the air. The music slowly builds. Where is this barren wasteland? The camera angles upward and in a brief moment the cloud of sand is blown away by a strong wind. We see it. We’re at Citi Field in September, home of the New York Mets baseball organization.
We cut to the short introduction we all thank Vince Gilligan for creating with that iconic rumbling theme playing. There is no skip intro button to push because it's so brief. We love it. We want more content. We’re a streaming generation!
This isn’t about television or one of its most iconic shows of the 21st Century although it might feel this way. Like Breaking Bad, several of the Mets transactions made over the last two years have slowly gone from an innocent high school chemistry teacher to a monster with a different kind of appetite. ‘s all not good, man.
1) The NY Mets free agent signing of Starling Marte has jumped the shark
The free agent signing of Starling Marte prior to the 2022 season was one we all adored. Marte looked like he could be the starting center fielder for the Mets, but thanks to Brandon Nimmo’s continued growth at the position, Marte ended up settling in as the right fielder. All was well for him in 2022 until an injury late side-lined him.
Marte’s absence at the end of the season is one of the main reasons why the Mets didn’t win the National League East. His play wasn’t the reason for it, unlike this year when we can point the finger at Marte’s low output to explain away why the Mets have been so bad.
Through 333 trips to the plate, Marte is a .254/.308/.332 hitter. This is maybe okay for a nine-hole hitter playing good defense. This isn’t what the Mets are paying Marte to be. He has only 7 doubles and 5 home runs this season. Other than swiping 24 bases, he hasn’t been an asset to the offense.
Most troubling of all is that the contract runs through the 2025 season. There could be two more years of him after jumping the shark.