You know how once every few years you hear about some train disastrously derailing, and you kind of wonder how that even happens? The most recent iteration of this is the 2023 New York Mets hype train.
This past offseason. The Mets spent an absurd amount of money on their pitching staff. Owner Steve Cohen has stated that he was willing to pay whatever it costs to put a good team on the field: “If you’re going to own a team — I came in with a commitment that I was going to put a good product on the field. And I think I’ve done that. I had no idea what it was going to cost to put a good product on the field, but I’m in a position where I make a good income, right? So I can do this.” He focused on pitching in particular, as good pitching is paramount to successful teams. The Mets doled out the following contracts to pitchers in 2022-2023 free agency:
- Edwin Diaz, 5 years, $102 million
- Justin Verlander, 2 years $86.6 million
- Kodai Senga, 5 years, $75 million
- José Quintana, 2 years, $26 million
- Adam Ottavino, 2 years, $14.5 million
- David Robertson, 1 year, $10 million
This is all after the Mets had also signed Max Scherzer to a 3 year, $130 million contract in the previous offseason.
The Mets may have lost ace Jacob DeGrom to Texas in free agency, but they weren’t going to let that stop them from assembling a dominant pitching staff that would be mowing down opposing batters and helping the Mets (with their league-leading payroll of ~$365 million in 2023, over $65 million more than the next-highest New York Yankees) rack up wins left and right.
Oh… what’s that? I’m receiving a message from the in-house stats department here at A2Z that the Mets actually totally suck this year and their big recent signings are being pillaged by teams with a real shot.
Somewhere, Moneyball Maestro Billy Beane is grinning ear to ear. The big fish is drowning while the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays are thriving as the 27th and 28th highest payrolls, respectively (both under $80 million).
As I write this article, the Mets are 50-55, and in the past couple days, have shipped both Verlander and Scherzer, once supposed to be the pillars of a World Series rotation, out of town. The Mets have given up on their experiment of outspending entire teams’ payrolls on two pitchers just over half a season after its inception. Robertson was traded away, too, by the way.
Remember the “Dream Team” 2011 Philadelphia Eagles? That team had a decent roster with studs like LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson, but gained huge (and self-imposed) expectations after a massive free agency. I’ll let this Wikipedia quote jog your memory:
“The Eagles made several high-profile additions in the offseason, including Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Nnamdi Asomugha, Vince Young, Ronnie Brown, Evan Mathis, Steve Smith from the rival New York Giants, and Jason Babin. With the numerous signings in addition to the previous years’ players, Young later enthusiastically commented during a training camp interview, calling the 2011 Eagles a ‘dream team’.”
The Eagles went 8-8 that season and missed the playoffs in a division that was not particularly strong that year.
This Mets season is reminiscent of that Eagles season: massively underperformed expectations. It turns out, no matter how much I like to say that the Yankees just bought all of their World Series titles, spending isn’t everything.
Hey, at least the Mets (and I) can enjoy that the Yankees are in last place right now.