Despite the Mets beating the Phillies 9-4 on Monday night, the team was officially eliminated from playoff contention as the Cardinals defeated the Braves.
The Mets have looked much better of late, and manager Mickey Callaway acknowledges the roller coaster season. He also mentioned the difficult June and how it was a prime factor in derailing the season.
However, he said the team can learn from it and get stronger from it going forward.
“We should’ve played better,” Callaway said. “I don’t have any excuses for those type things. We could’ve played better, and we didn’t.
“For me, June happened. It didn’t not happen. We have to do everything we can to make sure that a June doesn’t happen again. Because it derails your whole season. It’s unfortunate, but that is what happened, and it did derail our season.”
Mets’ co-general manager John Ricco spoke about the team’s poor months of May and June, as well as injuries to key players and struggles from other players, and called it “a perfect storm.”
“That was pretty much the season,” Ricco said.
Ricco continued: “The bright side is seeing how Mickey and the team righted the ship in the second half and have played really competitively for a long period of time, and not just in September but against some teams that are fighting for playoff spots. I have to fold that into the takeaway on the season, which is this team, there are some strengths to build on, a lot of what we’ve seen recently.”
There have been many positives in the second half of the season, and the Mets need to build off them for 2019.
However, they can’t remain pat in free agency this winter just because they have been solid since the All-Star break.
New York still needs to go out and get a catcher, someone to round out the starting rotation and a reliever or two at minimum. And depth, lots of depth.
