I know it’s painful right now – but the future looks bright…
And so it has ended. The 2015 roller-coaster season came to a crashing halt on the franchise´s first ever November game. Yes, the team´s biggest flaws – infield defense and setup relief – were exposed in the World Series and especially late in Games 4 and 5.
The Mets got beaten by a deserving World Champion Kansas City Royals, the team that – including the playoffs – won the most games in baseball in 2015 with a unique mix of players, mostly in their primes. They were determined to win it all after falling short a year ago and came through by outplaying the Mets. Kudos to them.
And while losing the World Series stings and hurts a lot, especially in the fashion in which it happened, ultimately, we can look back at this season as a huge success for this franchise. Not just in terms of giving us the most entertaining, stressful, successful and exciting Mets season since at least 2000, but also due to its long term implications in various ways.
Financially, this season has led and will continue to lead to a massive shift in flexibility. Besides enormous playoff-related revenues, the Mets already saw their regular season attendance rise above 2.5 million for the first time in several years. And you can rest assured that this turnaround season will lead to yet another major spike in ticket sales for 2016.
Not only should the overall attendance figure improve significantly again, but especially expensive luxury seating figures to be in far higher demand than it used to be. Overall, this will create revenue streams that will finally create an option for ownership and the front office to try playing “Moneyball with money” after all those years of revenue and debt enforced austerity.
While the Mets don´t figure to ever operate under a large market type payroll structure again, as long as this ownership group remains in place, this will still have an enormous effect on payroll flexibility going forward. Thus, payrolls in the $115 to $145 million range should be very reasonable expectations going forward without ownership really in danger of any significant financial risks in the process.
Not only will it allow the team to add more expensive players externally if needed. But it also puts the club in a good position to retain most of its current young core group of players that now got to sniff October – and November – for the first time in their careers.
And beyond finances, if you take a step back and exhale after the painful World Series loss, this year has been a huge success in terms of structural roster construction too. Not only did Jacob deGrom, Jeurys Familia and Travis d’Arnaud prove that their strong 2014 rookie campaigns were no flukes. They actually improved further and established themselves as core players going forward.
Matt Harvey – amidst all the turmoil that he seems to constantly attract – had a remarkable comeback on the field and stepped up in a fitting way in Game 5. And most notably, three more exciting rookies, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Michael Conforto flashed a world of talent not only during their debut regular season – but also had several huge moments on the big post-season stage as well.
These seven young and talented assets will be re-joined by Zack Wheeler in 2016 and arguably form one of the best groups of young players that are under long-term team control in the game. The Mets control these fabulous eight for at least three and mostly 5-6 more years. It´s a starting point similar to the ones dynasties of the past have been built upon – like we saw in the Bronx, Atlanta or even to a lesser degree more recently in San Francisco. There´s no reason why the Mets shouldn’t be expected to be constant participants in October and even November Baseball at least throughout the rest of this decade, if not beyond.
Sooner than we’re used to, the off-season will get underway next week. While there are several question marks and spots that need to be settled, the foundation for many more successful seasons is in place. Today, this franchise – all things considered – seems to be set up better than it has ever looked in early November at any point over the past 25+ years. Unless the front office and ownership totally screw things up or a wave of miserable luck hits, this season has just been the opening of a long era of success. Years from now we will all look back at the 2015 season – smile and say to ourselves – that was the year the magic came back. Let’s Go Mets!
