It ain't easy being a Mets fan these days.
As training camp has begun, and the first pre-season game takes place tomorrow vs. NL East champ Washington, the Mets are not a playoff contender by any stretch of the imagination. This much is obvious from the get-go. Consider that the fallout from the Bernard Madoff mess still has the team's finances hamstrung, such that they had little choice but to let outfielder Scott Hairston walk as a free agent, and they lost all three of the catchers that played during 2012.
The outfield, in particular, is a mess. Jason Bay is in Seattle. Andres Torres returned to San Francisco, where he'll now run alongside the man he replaced in New York, Angel Pagan, with the World Series champions. Your starting outfield figures to include Lucas Duda, coming off an off-season injury, and probably Marlon Byrd & Colin Cowgill, the latter of whom has changed teams each of the last two off-seasons. He was in Oakland last year, and Arizona the year before. Byrd is well traveled, with Chicago, Philadelphia, & Washington among past points.
The Mets traded Cy Young winner R. A. Dickey and catchers Josh Thole & Mike Nickeas to Toronto, and got catchers John Buck (who had been traded from Miami) and Travis D'Arnaud in return. Buck will be the starting catcher, that much is certain. Trading Dickey was something the fans didn't want to have happen, but then, they should be used to such boneheaded decisions by now, given that past ownership had made similarly bad moves (i.e. trading Tom Seaver in 1977). In addition, the starting rotation took a couple of other hits, with Mike Pelfrey now in Minnesota, and Chris Young, whom the Mets were hoping to bring back, just signed with Washington. Uh-oh! The Mets' other receiver last season, Rob Johnson, joins Hairston in Chicago. Infielder Ronny Cedeno spent just the one year in Flushing, and signed with St. Louis earlier this week. So much for infield depth.
Luckily, All-Star 3B David Wright ain't going anywhere, as he re-upped for 8 more years during the off-season. The starting infield figures to be the same as it was last year, with Ike Davis at first, Daniel Murphy at second, Ruben Tejada at shortstop, and Wright. For those wondering if the Mets made a mistake letting 2011 batting champ Jose Reyes walk (now in Toronto), apparently they didn't. Reyes didn't come close to repeating last year while with Miami, and the Mets kept him in check. They won't see him as often this year, and Tejada had a higher batting average!
In terms of pitching, the starting rotation has Johan Santana, Dillon Gee, Jonathan Niese, and there are questions about Matt Harvey, who suffered from a lack of offensive support after a late summer call-up despite gaudy numbers, and whether or not Zack Wheeler, who came from San Francisco in the Carlos Beltran trade in 2011, should start the season with the big club. The bullpen also took a couple of hits, as Jon Rauch went south to Miami (smart move---not!), and Ramon Ramirez followed Torres back to San Francisco.
The most hardcore fans are resigned to the fact that there won't be any playoffs in Flushing this year, but, then again, there might not be any in the Bronx if the Yankees can't get younger in a hurry, and they really need to, more so than the Mets. No, the Mets won't finish last---Miami has the basement keys for the next couple of years---but they could fight Philadelphia for 3rd place, just like last year.
We'll look at the Yankees another time.
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