Saturday Seasons: The 2019 Mets: A Wild Boar, a Wild Ride, and a Season Only the Mets Could Have

If ever a list was put together noting actions and events that were quintessential New York Mets, that list would probably include continually opting for the unusual move that eventually backfires instead of choosing the more obvious and safer option; trades for veterans well past their primes that everyone except the front office knew would backfire; bizarre injuries that seem to happen only to the Mets; and big tease sprints toward the playoffs that ultimately collapse, breaking fans’ hearts.

               The 2019 Mets checked all those boxes.

               Start with the search for unconventional solutions to straightforward problems, in this case hiring a general manager to replace Sandy Alderson, who stepped aside in 2018 amid a recurrence of his cancer and an admission that he did not deserve to return. The Wilpons – Fred and Jeff – looked at 40 potential replacements, whittling down their list to a former general manager (Doug Melvin), an up-and-coming executive (Chaim Bloom) and the high-risk but maybe high reward option of choosing an agent (sort of inviting the fox into the henhouse).

               Not just any agent, but the one who represented Yoenis Cespedes, Jacob deGrom, Jason Vargas, Todd Frazier, Robert Gsellman, Noah Syndergaard and Brandon Nimmo. That’s just under a third of the 25-man roster, if you’re scoring at home.

               So you could say that the Wilpons’ decision to hire Brodie Van Wagenen as Alderson’s permanent replacement was, well, creative to say the least.

“Brodie showed us he is a progressive thinker, who is prepared for this role and has great baseball acumen,” Fred Wilpon said at the news conference announcing Van Wagenen’s hiring. “Jeff brought forward an array of candidates and we all agreed that Brodie’s high character, blend of analytics, scouting and development ideas illustrate why he will be successful in this role.”

Van Wagenen hit the ground running, at least in the swagger department. “We will win now, we will win in the future,” Van Wagenen said at the Oct. 20, 2018 news conference. “We want to develop a winning culture and a winning mindset and we will deliver this city and this fan base a team they can be proud of.”

A little over five weeks later, Van Wagenen began the task of remaking the Mets’ roster with a bold trade, sending five players (including Jay Bruce and the team’s number one prospect, outfielder Jarred Kelenic) to the Seattle Mariners for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz.

This is a deal that smelled failure from the start: Cano was at the back end of his career, had a large contract and had been suspended for half of the 2018 season after testing positive for a PED. Add to that the Mets’ dismal history of trading for over-the-hill former All-Star second basemen (Carlos Baerga, Roberto Alomar) and the fact that Cano’s main selling point seemed to be that he was a Van Wagenen client, raising some questions about whether that colored the general manager’s assessment of Cano’s present abilities.

But even then, some people were saying the real key to the deal was Diaz, who saved 57 games for the Mariners and that the Mets had to take Cano (and his salary) as the price for getting the closer. And looking back, seven years later, it is clear the Mets got the better of deal because of Diaz, although that wasn’t the case in pre-Blasterjax Narco 2019 (more about that later).

Two weeks later, Van Wagenen brought Jeurys Familia back to New York as a free agent and signed All-Star catcher Wilson Ramos. He made consecutive trades on Jan. 5-6, dealing six prospects to add infielder J.D. Davis and outfielder Keon Broxton for the Mets’ bench. On Jan. 16, he signed All-Star infielder Jed Lowrie despite the fact the Mets appeared already to have had a logjam in the infield. (Lowrie would take care of that logjam by spraining  a capsule in his left knee during spring training and a hamstring while on a rehab assignment, followed by a right calf sprain that we know, in 2026, guarantees a stint on the IL. He would appear in only nine games).

So as the Mets went to Spring Training and broke camp for the regular season, they brought with them the usual optimism that they could turn things around after two losing seasons and make a post-season run. Part of that optimism was fueled by their power hitting rookie first baseman, who made the team while losing the last letter of his first name.

Led by Pete (formerly Peter) Alonso’s hot hitting – nine home runs, 26 RBI, a .291 batting average – the Mets broke fast out of the gate before tailing off a bit and finished April with a 15-14 record. And then they hit the road in May and things unraveled. The bullpen imploded, led by Diaz, who developed a knack for surrendering ninth-inning home runs, not the best stat for a closer. The defense proved porous.

And then, in the midst of it all, came the bizarre injury, the latest in a long line of non-baseball injuries to befall the Mets. No, not another taxicab crash, but a multi-fractured ankle that Yoenis Cesdepes suffered at his Port St. Lucie ranch while rehabbing from surgery to remove bone spurs in both heels.

Few details were released at the time: Van Wagenen said Cespedes had suffered a “violent” fall without providing any context. But questions about the circumstances continued to be raised as the months went by and it was announced that the Mets and Cespedes had agreed to restructure his contract – costing Cespedes at least $15.7 million -- after the Mets threatened to withhold his entire 2019 pay.

It wasn’t until the following January that the details emerged: Cespedes was injured when he stepped into a hole while interacting with a wild boar. The New York Post reported, citing multiple sources, that Cespedes had traps on his ranch for a variety of reasons, including to keep boars away from people. But one boar was removed from a trap — perhaps by Cespedes — and either charged toward Cespedes or startled him, causing Cespedes to step into a hole.

Cespedes would not return to the team in 2019 and would play only eight more games for the Mets, in 2020, before walking away from his contract.

Meanwhile, as may turned to June, the Mets continued to stumble, showing an inability to win on the road and – unlike May, when they were 9-2 at Citi Field – difficulties, too, in Flushing. Fingers started pointing. Heads began to roll.

Let go were pitching coach Dave Eiland and bullpen coach Chuck Hernandez, with the Mets leading the league in blown saves – 16 in 33 chances – and a staff ERA of 4.57, despite a pitching staff led by Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Zach Wheeler. Eiland’s interim replacement was Phil (The Vulture) Regan, at 82 years old by far the oldest pitching coach in the majors. Hernandez’ was Ricky Bones, who was the bullpen coach from 2012 to 2018 but who had been serving at the pitching coach at the Mets’ Class A St. Lucie farm team. Jeremy Accardo was named the interim pitching strategist.

In the short term, things didn’t turn around. And the manager didn’t handle adversity particularly well.  After a difficult loss in Chicago, with the bullpen blowing another lead, Mickey Callaway faced pointed questions about leaving Seth Lugo in the game after 40 pitches in his second inning of work. Lugo surrendered the go-ahead three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth that cost the Mets the game while Diaz stayed in the bullpen, only available, Callaway claimed for a three-out save in the ninth.

Then Callaway lost it it when Newsday reporter Tim Healy, at the end of Callaway’s postgame clubhouse media availability, casually commented, “See you tomorrow.”

“Don’t be a smart ass,” Callaway told Healy before turning to the Mets’ public relations staff and telling them to “get this motherf–ker out of the clubhouse.” Compounding the incident was pitcher Jason Vargas, who, according to one report, “engaged in a stare-down with Healey and threatened to “knock you the f–k out.” When Healey didn’t leave, Vargas took steps toward the reporter before Carlos Gomez and Syndergaard interceded, separating the two.

Not only did Callaway botch the news conference, subsequently he botched the apology, originally not saying he was sorry for his expletive-laden barrage at Healy. Two hours layer, with mom and dad – sorry – we mean Mets brass figuratively dragging Callaway by the ear, he finally apologized to Healy at a second media availability.

“I understand that I got some feedback -- I wanted you guys to know in my meeting with [Newsday reporter] Tim [Healey], I apologized for my reaction,” Callaway was quoted as saying in news accounts. “I regret it. I regret the distraction it has caused to the team, and, like I said earlier, it’s something we’ll learn from. Something I’m not proud of, I’m not proud of the distraction, I’m not proud of what I did to Tim. For that I’m definitely sorry.”

Vargas, it should be noted, remained uncontrite, even after he and Callaway paid $10,000 fines the team levied.

But then, just as it looked like another once-promising season was headed for a long, unproductive summer, things started to click. Instead of being sellers at the trade deadline, Van Wagenen sent two prospects to the Toronto Blue Jays for frontline starter Marcus Stroman, giving the Mets a rotation with two Suffolk County-raised pitchers (Steven Matz was the first). They won their last six games in July and nine of their first 10 in August.

Their leader through all of this was their rookie first baseman, Alonso, who continued to assault Aaron Judge’s major league rookie home run record; he broke Cody Bellinger’s National League record on August 18 with his 40^th dinger.

But Alonso wasn’t the only one to get hot. Jeff McNeil hit .300. J.D. Davis became a cult hero. Michael Conforto delivered clutch hits. Amed Rosario blossomed. Wilson Ramos carried a hitting streak that would last 26 games into early September Even Canó had a resurgence before injuries slowed him again. The bullpen stabilized.

To channel football coach Jim Mora: “Playoffs? You’re talking playoffs?”

But then the calendar turned to September, and an early-month loss foreshadowed the disappointment to come when the Mets blew a six-run ninth inning lead to drop an 11-10 game to the Washington Nationals. While Alonso continued hitting bombs, Diaz surrendered them – by September 6, he had allowed 14 ninth-inning home runs. Familia struggled. Lugo got tired. The hole they dug themselves earlier in the season finally caught up with them. On September 23, they were eliminated from Wild Card contention.

Five days later, Alonso hit his 53^rd home run to break Judge’s record.

The final record, 86-76, was a nine-game improvement over 2018. But not enough to satisfy Van Wagenen or the Wilpons, who placed some of the blame at the feet of the manager. Callaway was fired shortly after the season ended.

"Progress is good, but falling three games short of the second wild card spot and finishing third place in our division is not good enough," Van Wagenen said. "It’s not our goals and we’re not satisfied with it.

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Added Wilpon: “I feel unfulfilled. I feel we left some games on the field that we should’ve won.”