This is a Fan Shot by Billy Heller

Getting ready to walk around the corner to get my wife a coffee (she was working from home), I put on my winter Mets wool hat and left the house.

When the barrister handed me the double skim latte with caramel syrup, he offered condolences. “I see you’re a fellow long-suffering Mets fan.”

I generally try to maintain a certain Zen about my decades-long fandom. In fact, when a new season begins and someone asks me how I think the Mets will do, my standard answer is this: I always begin a season with no expectations. And I’m never disappointed.

But so far in this offseason, I’m sorry to say that disappointment has made an appearance.

In the final day of the baseball’s Winter Meetings in Nashville, the Yankees traded for three-time All-Star outfielder Juan Soto, who is only 25 years old. And not only a very good hitter, but an exciting player, who as another Yankee, George Steinbrenner, said many years ago about another outfielder named Reggie Jackson, he puts fannies in the seats.

The next day, I saw an email from Mets.com with the subject line JUST ANNOUNCED. In all caps and bold.

Before I cold get to the rest of that subject line, I clicked to see how the Mets countered the Yankees Soto deal. Could they have signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the star Japanese pitcher (also just 25). Maybe shocked the world with a crazy trade netting them, say Ronald Acuña Jr.? (Us Mets fans can dream, right?)

Well, not exactly. “The Def Leppard/Journey Stadium Tour with Steve Miller Band is heading to Citi Field next summer on Wednesday, August 7.”

Sure, those bands have had their share of hits—something the Mets offense can always use more of. And if the team ever wanted to replace “Meet the Mets” for some reason, the Def Leppard tune “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” would certainly fit.

Just when I was staring to recover from that “tone-Def” Mets email the day after, came more Mets news. We got an outfielder from San Diego! This same Padres who sent Soto to The Bronx. Could it be the troubled but very talented (and young) Fernando Tatis Jr.?

Nope. The Mets announced they’d signed 7-year minor league veteran Taylor Kohlwey, who went 2 for 13 with five strikeouts in his cup of coffee with the Padres last year.

Well, there’s two months or so before pitchers and catchers report to spring training in mid-February. And it doesn’t matter so much who wins the off-season (although it would be nice if it was the Mets).

So, for now, to avoid disappointment, I’ll just stick with my usual “no expectations” for the 2024 season. But I’ll also be singing along to that Journey anthem “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Just ask Tug McGraw.