Saturday Seasons: A New Owner, But Thumbs Down to 2021

The 2021 Mets season featured a new owner, a new/old head of baseball operations, two general managers (neither of whom would last the season), a roster overhaul, a trade that will be ranked as one of the best  in team history only to be followed by one of the worst and one of those epic collapses that always seem to have the word Mets attached to them.

               Oh, yes, and a player revolt against the fans that forced management into some serious damage control.

               Other than that……..

               Steve Cohen’s agreement to purchase 95 percent of the team for $2.4 billion technically came while the 2020 season, such as it was, still was underway, but his approval by the other owners (a 24-4 vote) did not come until October, well into the planning for 2021. And the media quickly picked up on the dissatisfaction fans had with the Wilpon family’s stweardship to hail the change.

“Frustrated Mets fans have for years pined for a new owner to swoop in and buy their team, someone to save it from what they felt was decades of mismanagement and mediocrity,” David Waldstein wrote in the New York Times. “Those fans can finally rejoice.”

"This is a significant milestone in the history of this storied franchise," Cohen said in a statement. "The 2021 season is right around the corner and we've got a lot of work to do, so I'm excited to get started.”

Cohen wasted no time in jettisoning Brodie Van Wagenen as the general manager and hiring as team president Sandy Alderson, who had parted ways with the Wilpons two years earlier, citing a recurrence of his cancer. Close associates also said a contributing factor was his frustration in dealing with the then-ownership.

               “Sandy is an accomplished and respected baseball executive who shares my philosophy of building an organization and a team the right way, “ Cohen said in a statement at the time.

               Alderson began putting his team together, hiring Theo Epstein disciple Jared Porter, then the Diamondbacks assistant general manager, as the 14^th general manager in club history.

“Jared has proven himself at every level and in every position he has held, earning respect from his peers throughout baseball,”  Alderson said in a December statement announcing the hire. “He is deeply knowledgeable in all aspects of the game and has worked with several accomplished baseball executives. Jared is prepared for this next challenge.”

To provide some measure of stability, Alderson kept 2020 manager Luis Rojas as the field general.

Alderson and Porter began remaking the roster, siging relievers Jacob Barnes and Trevor May and catcher James McCann in late November and early December. Then, on January 7, they made the big move, trading Amed Rosario, Andres Gimenez and two procpects who would never make it to the Cleveland Indians for starter Carlos Carrasco and shortstop Francisco Lindor.

“Mets Steal Star Lindor!” the Daily News headline screamed. Bill Madden, their chief baseball writer, followed up two days later with a column that began: “With one bold and spectacular trade, Steve Cohen and the Mets have swiftly succeeded in taking over the New York baseball universe. “ The headline on the CBS.com story was even more succinct: “Mets Fleece Cleveland.” (Five years later, the deal looks even better for the Mets. Lindor has become the face of the franchise. Rosario has bounced around from team to team while the other three players have faded into further obscurity).

Things were looking up, right? But this is the Mets, so you know something bad was about to counterbalance the good.

It came in the form of a January 19 ESPN story that Porter, while working for the Cubs in 2016, had sent inappropriate text messages – more than 60 of them –to a foreign female reporter. Alderson  confronted Porter. “There was no explanation,” Alderson said of his conversation with Porter. “He was apologetic. He was remorseful. He took responsibility, et cetera. So there wasn’t really a good explanation for what happened. I would have expected a good explanation for what happened.”

A few hours later, after Alderson and Cohen spoke, Porter was a former general manager.

“With respect to the series of incidents involving Jared, those are the kinds of things that this organization, and many others, find abhorrent and not tolerable in any shape or form,”  Alderson said. “We responded as quickly as we possibly could.”

“In my initial press conference, I spoke about the importance of integrity, and I meant it,” Cohen wrote on Twitter. “There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior.”

Alderson named assistant GM Zack Scott as acting general manager while noting that he would remain in control of baseball operations. And, almost without missing a beat, the roster overhaul continued.

In swift succession, Alderson and Scott: traded for Joey Lucchesi and Sean Reid-Foley; signed Aaron Loup; acquired pitcher Jordan Yamamoto and Khalil Lee; signed infielder Jonathan Villar, pitcher Taijuan Walker and outfielder Kevin Pillar.

More importantly, and a true sign that things were different under Cohen’s ownership, they signed Lindor to a 10-year, $341 million contract just before the season began.

And for a while, it looked like all the pieces were fitting into place nicely. A so-so April was followed by a hot May. On June 1, the team was in first place in the NL East, 3 ½ games ahead of the Braves, having survived IL stints by Pete Alonso, Seth Lugo and Pillar. They came out of the All-Star Break at 47-40, basking in Alonso’s second Home Run Derby win and still on top of the division, with the Phiilies having overtaken the Braves for the second spot.

They did it the with a makeshift rotation helped by rookie surprise Tylor Megill, and Marcus Stroman, the only pitcher in the rotation on opening day who did not spend some time on the IL, with the most notable absence being Jacob deGrom. Carrasco, on the IL since the start of the season, did not make his Mets debut until late July.

With the hits to the rotation, the bullpen became strained, and as the trade deadline approached, people were speculating that Scott/Alderson would make a deal or deals to shore up the pitching staff.

Instead, the Mets pulled off another shocker – acquiring not a hurler, but a shortstop who would be moved to second base. To obtain Javier Baez and his expiring contract from the Cubs, along with pitcher Trevor Williams, the Mets gave up heralded number one draft choice Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Most media reports viewed the deal favorably, especially if the Mets were able to sign Baez in the offseason, noting that Lindor and Baez had made a formidable double play combination playing for Puerto Rico in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Eyebrows were raised, however, in other quarters, wondering if the price for what could be a two-month rental was too steep. Five years later, of course, the deal is being talked about in the same breath as Amos Otis for Joe Foy and Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi.

Alderson and Scott defended themselves by saying they couldn’t get a top starting pitcher, so they went for the best position player available.

And just as they were announcing the trade, they also said that deGrom was headed to the IL again with forearm inflammation and wouldn’t be back until September at the earliest.

Instead of providing a spark that kept the Mets atop the division, the moves, or lack thereof, sent the team into a tailspin as the calendar turned to August.

“There is no sugarcoating it. The Mets are missing their swagger. They look lifeless at the plate, striking out on fastballs in sleepy at bats. Spoiling rallies before they even begin. Appearing motionless and lifeless in the dugout. Right now the Mets have all the enegy of a bear hibernating in winter,” Deesha Thosar wrote in a Daily News column.

On August 8, after 103 days at the top, they dropped out of first place and kept on sinking.

The fans, who had been excited about the propsect of a division title and the playoffs over the first 108 games, became surly over the next 54, doing what fans do best when things go bad: boo.

The players? They did not react well to that negative reinforcement. Led by Baez – the hitting star who supposedly would help carry the team into October – some of the players began celebrating the positive achievements such as extra base hits by giving thumbs-down signals, essentially thumbing their noses, or whatevers, at the fans. It was, Baez was quoted in Newsday, “to let them [the fans] know that when we don’t get success, we’re going to get booed. So they’re going to get booed when we get success.”

Not something management looked at kindly. Two days later, Baez and Lindor apologized.

“Thumbs down for me means adversity that we have gone through this whole time, the negative things, we overcome it,” Lindor said. “However, it was wrong, and I apologize to whoever I offended. It was not my intent to offend people. I can’t go against the fans.

“I didn’t mean to offend anybody. And if I offended anybody, we apologize.” Baez said

Alderson called Báez’ initial comments -- and, by extension, the gestures of Báez, Lindor, Kevin Pillar and any other Mets who flashed the thumbs-down sign -- “totally unacceptable.”  Cohen told the New York Post that he planned to address the issue with Lindor and Báez at a charity function a few nights later at his home.

               But in true Mets fashion, the charity function created another headache for Alderson and Cohen, as acting general manager Scott, who was at the function, was arrested for drunk driving when he failed a sobriety test after he was found sleeping in his car in front of the White Plains courthouse at 4:17 a.m. Alderson placed Scott on leave and later fired him; Scott was subsequently acquitted of the drunk driving charge.

               The losing continued in September, and by the time the season was over, the Mets’ record was 77-85, which did give them a distinction: the most days in MLB history that a team had been in first place (103) and finished with a losing record.

               You have to wonder how many times during the season Cohen felt he was suffering from buyer’s remorse.