Javier Baez Reminds Us of 2015, But His Situation Is Different

EXPECTATIONS need to be met for a baseball decision to be deemed successful. Players traded at the deadline carry the hopes and dreams of a fanbase anxiously watching to see if their squad lifts a trophy at the end of the year. Until the Mets win or reach the World Series the move every fan hopes for is similar to the one that brought Yoenis Cespedes to New York in 2015.

The Mets added Cespedes to their eventual pennant-winning roster at 3:47 p.m on the day of the deadline, thirteen minutes before all deals had to be made. Cespedes came to the Mets after an attempt to acquire Carlos Gomez from Milwaukee fell through. The next two and a half months of Mets baseball became appointment viewing with the Cuban slugger batting cleanup. In 57 regular-season games, Cespedes hit 17 home runs. That includes a stretch of nine home runs in 13 games. The Mets finished 90-72, first in the NL East with the party not stopping until Game 5 of the World Series.

Sandy Alderson went in on a middling roster that season (53-50 at the deadline). They made deals acquiring folk heroes Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, and Tyler Clippard. The top players traded away were at the time No. 7 ranked prospect Michael Fulmer and No. 15 ranked Luis Cessa. They turned into fine relievers while Clippard is the only player acquired by the Mets still in MLB.

Expectations were met and exceeded.

THE 2021 Mets roster had World Series expectations in spring training. A lineup led by a new kid on the block Franciso Lindor with Pete Alonso, Dominic Smith, Michael Conforto, and Jeff McNeil couldn’t fail. The pitching staff of Jacob deGrom, Taijuan Walker, Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco, and the eventual return of Noah Syndergaard was easily the best in the division and top two in the NL. Yet a week into August at 56-55 the season appears lost.

On the July 30 trade deadline the Mets, and a fanbase, hopes weren’t gone. They sat atop the worst division in baseball and just acquired Javier Baez from the Cubs for their fifth-overall prospect that isn’t playing this season. Baez can shore up the middle of the infield until Lindor’s return and spark the struggling lineup. Manager Luis Rojas said, “He’s a guy that even if he goes 0-4 can beat you with his glove or on the base paths.”

Still not sure about the latter part of that statement since Baez has walked 17 times in 397 plate appearances. Maybe he can teleport but only does it in the clubhouse. Who knows?

Nevertheless, he’s still the Mets Cespedes-que (pronounced Cesped-Esque) acquisition this season. He’s the slugger who takes you over the top, the fan-favorite, the must-watch player. Cespedes attracted eyes to him with his neon yellow arm sleeve, his signature 52 dangling from his neck, and an arm that could reach home with zero hops. Baez has his distinctive eye black, his one bead and one curb-styled chain, and plays with an energy and flash few players, if any, can even emulate.

If you only watched the highlights Baez would be the best baseball player in the world. Every few nights he’s broadcasted straight to your phone. Baez walks it off. Baez tags this runner. Baez makes MLB defenders’ brains turn into cherry jello. Ignore the back of the baseball card and focus on the front, you want him on your team every day. The highlights romanticize him and remind you of that spectacular stretch of summer and fall baseball where everything seemed to go the Mets way.

But watching him play every day is more like watching Cespedes fight wild boars than the magic he’s known for.

EL MAGO burst into fans’ hearts with a home run in his first game in Flushing. Then four games later he singlehandedly earned the Mets a win with another home run and a slide that boggled observers and catchers everywhere. That was magic. In between the highlights shows a different side. Outside those two games, he’s 3-for-25 with zero extra-base hits and a platinum sombrero.

Maybe it’s expected. Baez has a .285 OBP with a league-high 144 strikeouts in 100 games this season. He could still regress back to career averages and gain 20 points in batting average and OBP. Plus he’s never struck out this often before. Until that happens he just slots right into the current Mets lineup.

Cespedes didn’t slot into the Mets lineup, he took it over. Immediately he became the Mets most feared bat in 2015 even though he didn’t show his power until 12 days after being traded. Cespedes finished 2015 with an OPS+ of 155 in a Mets uniform. Fifteen points higher than second-place Lucas Duda and Conforto. With a fully healthy team, all but one starter finished with an OPS+ above the league average 100. He turned a good lineup into great.

Offensively there isn’t a franchise legend coming back to play third one last time nor is there a prospect poised to be called into an everyday lineup spot anytime soon. The Mets in 2021 were supposed to be great from game one. The Mets in 2015 exceeded what was thought of them.

Baez was supposed to be the final piece of a puzzle. One more All-Star with a championship pedigree to get the Mets their first title since 1986. He needed to be magical every day. He’s tried. So far his fairy dust hasn’t rubbed off.

TWO games out of a division title in mid-August shouldn’t be a panic-button situation. Yet patience is thin and you begin to question the process of the Mets deadline. A 42-year-old, another shortstop hitting the worst he ever has, and Trevor Williams likely won’t cut it when the Dodgers are adding Trea Turner and Max Scherzer. It should be enough to compete with a team adding Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy or a team that trades away its best player. Having won just once in their past seven games, clearly, it was not.

In baseball, you always want more. More players, more runs, more strikeouts, more anything. Right now the Mets don’t have that. They’re stuck with each other. As a major trade deadline acquisition, Baez is pushed to be the savior of this team. But he’s not. Silent locker rooms, frustrations boiling over, these problems began before he even arrived. It’s on the guys already there.

Baez is scooping out water from a sinking ship, not raising the sails like Cespedes.

Nostalgia smells sweet and strong. Posting videos of Terry Collins pep talks is nice. Comparing him to Rojas is not. Posting videos of a healthy Matt Harvey is awesome. Making Tylor Megill the next dark night is not. 

Javy Baez isn’t going to be Yoenis Cespedes and that’s okay. It’s not 2015 anymore. It’s 2021 and to this point, the Mets have failed to become the team they were supposed to be.

“The swag, the belief, the magic is there,” Alonso said on Wednesday. They still got seven more weeks to show it.