While we still don’t have much of an idea as to when the New York Mets and the rest of Major League Baseball will actually get to start the 2020 regular season, we can at least hope it’ll happen at some point. Once it finally does, the Amazins will get to begin the next decade of Mets baseball in Queens at Citi Field.
Despite starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard now being on the sidelines until next season because of Tommy John surgery, manager Luis Rojas‘ squad is still expected to be a playoff contender, according to projections. When looking back on how New York entered the recently finished decade, its current outlook appears much brighter.
However, the one thing that’s escaped the Mets on a regular basis throughout team history is any real consistency when it comes to participating in playoff baseball. They’ve typically made the most of the handful of trips they’ve made to October, but those opportunities haven’t come nearly as often as anyone would’ve liked.
Heck, New York didn’t reach the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time until 1999 and 2000 before doing it again in 2015 and 2016 (although going one-and-done in the 2016 National League Wild Card game wasn’t fun). With the fresh slate of a new decade upon us — eventually — and the roster currently filled with a number of young and/or controllable players, the Mets at least have an opportunity to start fast and do something they’ve yet to accomplish as a franchise.
A Decade With More Postseason Appearances?
Something we can all agree on as Mets fans is that when there’s a winning team/contender in Queens, it’s incredibly sweet. One of reasons behind that is because it doesn’t happen every single year. We know that and can appreciate it.
During my infinite boredom of not having any new (and real) baseball to consume, I looked back on the Mets’ year-by-year results as a franchise. In doing so, there are some things that I noticed.
When it comes to consecutive seasons with a winning record, the Mets have experienced three different periods of time where they’ve been successful in doing so for at least five straight seasons (1969-73, 1984-90, and 1997-2001). Breaking it down a bit more, though, having consecutive years of 90-plus wins has been increasingly tough.
Between 1969 and 1973, only the ’69 World Champs posted more than 83 wins in a single campaign. The mid-80’s Mets from ’84 through ’88 collected at least 90 wins each season, but unfortunately only had two postseason appearances to show for it. Finally, the New York teams from 1997 to 2001 only posted 90-plus wins in 1999 and 2000 when they went to the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time ever.
Getting to the 90-win plateau is nice and all, but especially in today’s expanded (and possibly still expanding) playoff format, that’s far from a requirement in order to play postseason baseball. Of all the things I noticed when looking through year-by-year results, the trend sticking out the most was that New York has never reached the playoffs more than twice in any single decade since beginning play in 1962.
How the Roster is Set Up to Accomplish This
Upon entering the decade that just officially wrapped up, it was hard to see any light at the end of a proverbial tunnel since Sandy Alderson was just put in charge to begin an organizational rebuild. But for the decade currently in front of us, there’s at least reason for optimism.
On the position player side of the roster, there’s an intriguing core group of young players who have multiple years of control left, like Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, J.D. Davis, Brandon Nimmo, Amed Rosario, Dominic Smith, Seth Lugo, Michael Conforto, and Edwin Diaz (especially if he gets back on track this season). That can help provide a solid foundation for any competitive ball club.
New York’s starting rotation situation will evolve much sooner, though. Jacob deGrom isn’t going anywhere, which is crucial given that he’s one of baseball’s best hurlers. However, Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha are free agents at the end of this season, as is Marcus Stroman, with Syndergaard and Steven Matz to follow suit following the 2021 campaign.
The next three or four years will be important when it comes to the Mets breaking their trend of not reaching the playoffs more than twice in any specific decade since coming into existence. Brodie Van Wagenen has made free-agent signings and trades with the thought process of being competitive and reaching the playoffs right now. If New York is able to get there once or twice, it’ll continue encouraging the organization to keep investing in the roster to get over the hump (hypothetically). If they keep falling short, there will likely be a time when the front office would decide to start over to some degree.
Who knows what the acquisitions of the past two years will do to the Mets’ big-league club toward the second half of this decade, as a good amount of minor-league talent has been shipped out. If those are leaner times, they could be a little easier to swallow if they came after the most consistent run of playoff baseball in Queens the franchise has ever seen.
Some playoff success mixed into this hypothetical run would be pretty cool, too.
