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The Mets played their last home game of the season on Thursday in the closing hours of September. It was dark by the time of the game and the flags were fluttering atop Citi Field in the cool breeze. Most of the players weren’t wearing long sleeves, but most of the fans bundled up. Summer is finished.
Many loyalists have shown up to rule out the team – 24,312 for a midweek game against the Miami Marlins, another who also raced in the National Eastern League. The Mets ruled the division for most of the season, but crashed hard. They are the first team to spend more than 100 days in first place and finish with a loss record. It’s a lot to deal with.
“There were a lot of positive things that happened,” said Pete Alonso in the home dugout after batting practice. “But I’m going to need some time to think about the lessons and the things I need to do to bring this team to the top. Because I love being a Met. I really love this organization and I love this fan base. But I hate to lose.
This game made the Mets laugh, 12-3, and the Marlins backup receiver pitched in the end. Alonso had two homers, Nos. 36 and 37 for the season, and had another stolen from the center field wall. Francisco Lindor smoked a grand slam and Michael Conforto whipped up two scoring singles. Rich Hill, the unlucky southpaw acquired in July, finally claimed his first Mets victory.
Conforto, who may be a free agent after the season, may have played his last home game as a Met. He found himself holding back tears in right field.
“Fans cheering on my name, telling me, ‘Don’t go,’” said Conforto, listing the times, on and off the pitch, that made him love New York. “We’ll see what happens in the future, but I loved every second that I had the chance to play here.”
Conforto, 28, is the only remaining positional player in the Mets’ 2015 World Series roster. Remember his brief star turn in Game 4? Conforto scored twice against Kansas City, and it looked like the Mets would tie the series. Instead, they lost their heads late in the heat and lost the World Series the following night. They haven’t won a playoff game since.
How close are the Mets really to playing games that matter in October? That’s a question to be resolved for the next president of baseball operations, and the Mets can’t afford to ruin another job search.
Their new owner, Steven Cohen, hired Jared Porter as general manager this offseason, with Zack Scott as an assistant. Porter was fired in January for sending obscene texts to a reporter, and Scott has been on administrative leave since his August 31 arrest and charged with impaired driving. In an era of expansive front offices, Sandy Alderson, the team president, was severely under-equipped.
“Sandy does three tasks at this point,” reliever Trevor May said Thursday. “More people are going to come in and probably cut out chunks of what used to be a job, and it’s going to become three people doing three jobs again, so the communication can be higher.
“You notice that so many organizations have their GMs, but they also have a president of baseball operations, assistant GMs – all the different little branches, but they’re all sort of doing GM duties now. So you can present them with things that you would bring to the GM in 2012 when there was only one guy. This is how it is now: a lot more brains are tackling bigger problems.
To lighten the workload, Alderson, 73, could chase a famous executive like Billy Beane or Theo Epstein, or try again to find a protégé to build on his ideas, like Beane did when he was. Alderson’s assistant in Oakland in the 1990s. Aside from last year’s hiring fiasco, Alderson should have some interesting options.
“I sell Steve Cohen, I sell New York, I sell the opportunity to realize the potential of a legendary but not yet iconic franchise,” Alderson told reporters Wednesday. “I think there is a lot to offer to someone who comes to the Mets. Is it a fixed part? Is it something that doesn’t require a certain amount of work? No. This is where the real fun comes in, is creating something.
The mystery executive will have a head start: elite puncher, Alonso, with three years before free agency; dominant (albeit fragile) starter Jacob deGrom with up to three years left on his contract; and a 27-year-old shortstop Francisco Lindor with 10 years left on his – and, yes, that’s a good thing.
As awkward as his transition to New York is, Lindor is a star who will end this season on a high: Thursday’s grand slam gave him nine home runs and 25 RBIs for September. His pal Javier Baez, 28, also showed the Mets their best side with free agency coming up.
Before the Mets tackle Baez’s future, or that of their other top free agents – Conforto and starters Marcus Stroman and Noah Syndergaard – they will first decide to retain manager Luis Rojas, who rose to 102- 117 in two seasons.
The Mets fired their batting coaches in May, but still never quite mended the offense. Only three teams – Miami, Texas and Pittsburgh – scored fewer points. The hitters chased too many bad pitches, Rojas said, failing at “all of those things that I know these players have come from our system knowing and mastering.”
Rojas, 40, was a longtime and well-respected manager in the Mets farming system before his promotion, and it would be a shame to lose someone who has helped the team reliably develop strong major leagues. He will know his fate in a few days.
“We have to get there first and find out what’s going to happen, but I have enjoyed my time here for the past two years as a manager,” Rojas said. “It was fun working with the guys everyday, connecting with them and getting ready. We didn’t achieve what we wanted to achieve, but the atmosphere in the clubhouse, for me, has been one of the most important things I can think of of the past two years here, in the way everything everyone gets along and gets ready to play. “
Alas, in the cold calculation of a season gone bad, results almost always count the most. The Mets may soon have new leaders in the dugout and front office, but the core of a winner is here – Alonso, deGrom and Lindor – and that’s more than most losing teams.
Lindor was the last Met to leave the field on Thursday, signing autographs for a hundred diehards near the dugout who had stayed for a final salute. A lot might be different between now and the next home game, six months from now, but for now Lindor had a simple message for the fans.
“Sorry we couldn’t do it for them,” he said, “but I appreciate the love they have given us all.”
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