NEW YORK — The Mets — perennial little brothers, laughingstocks, blue and orange painting of dysfunction — have done everything right. They got their A-student in Max Scherzer, boosted their GPA with A-minuses in Starling Marte and Chris Bassitt, and even brought in players from the B-level like Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha to make sure things didn’t get too top-heavy. On Sunday, they filled in the margins a bit by wrangling Brooklyn kid Adam Ottavino.
General manager Billy Eppler and owner Steve Cohen did exactly what they were supposed to do. The offseason is about identifying ways to get better. That means finding some teams that are doing the opposite — even in a post-lockout world there are still several clubs proudly getting worse in the name of profit — and improving the roster via trades with those teams or by establishing to free agents that you’re in it to win it.
For literal generations, this is how the Yankees got down. Reggie Jackson. Dave Winfield. Alex Rodriguez. Gerrit Cole. They were all swayed by the pinstripes and the Yankees’ history, sure, but like any red-blooded American they also love money. The Yankees used to love giving out that type of persuasive money. Not so much in the 2020s, where the Yankees have nabbed Cole and re-signed DJ LeMahieu, but also struck out on Scherzer, George Springer, Justin Verlander, and the entire 2022 shortstop free-agent class, which is made up almost exclusively of players who grew up idolizing Derek Jeter and would have presumably jumped at the chance to recreate his career if the money was right.
