For this round of Mets Madness, the 2015 pennant winners will be hosting the 1998 team. It’ll be a team that fell just short of the ultimate goal against a team that fell just short of making the playoffs.
Mojo Hill will be controlling the ’98 squad, while our giveaway winner, Sammy Cohen, will get the honor of manning the ’15 team — the most recent Mets group to make it to the World Series. Will they redeem themselves with a full championship run this time, or will a ’90s Mets squad get in their way?
1998 Mets
This was a significant season in Mets history in that it was the year they acquired star catcher Mike Piazza, who blasted a commanding 1.024 OPS in 109 games after coming over from the Dodgers and a brief pit spot on the Marlins. John Olerud completed a lethal 1-2 punch with Piazza, batting .354 with a .998 OPS in 160 games. Ever wonder what might have happened if prime Matt Harvey got to face prime Piazza? Well, here’s your chance.
The rest of the team, however, was a bit of an adventure. Al Leiter was the star of the rotation with a 2.47 ERA, while Rick Reed, Bobby Jones and Masato Yoshii also put up strong bodies of work, but the depth on both sides of the ball got thin quickly. Beside Piazza and Olerud, the only other qualified hitter with an OPS above .800 was Brian McRae. The bullpen had John Franco, Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook, but not much beyond that.
It was a top-heavy team that ultimately didn’t have quite enough to make a run. The Mets collapsed at the end of the season and placed second in the NL East, one game short of making the playoffs. Their final record was 88-84.
2015 Mets
Despite being eight years old now, this is a team that’s likely still fresh on the mind of Mets fans. This season brought its share of miracles and heartbreaks, culminating in a special playoff run that ran out of gas right at the very end.
It was fueled, of course, by the midseason acquisition of Yoenis Cespedes, along with strong seasons from Jacob deGrom, Harvey and Noah Syndergaard. Jon Niese and Bartolo Colon filled the need of steady, reliable veterans in the rotation. The bullpen was strong too, with Jeurys Familia at his absolute best — a 1.85 ERA, 43 saves, 76 games and 78 innings pitched. Addison Reed was another important trade acquisition in the ‘pen, while Steven Matz and Michael Conforto‘s strong rookie campaigns contributed as well.
This was the year of Wilmer Flores, which in a three-day span saw him cry on the field, suffer a rain-delay-aided collapse on July 30 (Mojo’s birthday) and smack a walk-off homer the next day. Through all the ups and downs, the Mets went 90-72 and won the NL East.
The magic continued into the postseason, with Daniel Murphy at the forefront of the army. While had a solid regular season with a .281 average and 14 home runs, he rose to another level in the playoffs. He became the first player in MLB history to homer in seven consecutive postseason games, leading to a defeat of the Dodgers and a sweep of the Cubs.
Murphy and the Mets finally cooled off in the Fall Classic, however, losing in five games to the Royals. Most memorably, Harvey gave his absolute all in a gutsy Game 5 performance, but it wasn’t enough.
Each of these Mets teams went through a roller coaster of their own and suffered heartbreaks in different ways. So, now that your memory is caught up, who will win: the Mets or the Mets?
