Well, this past week’s been quite a roller coaster for us Mets fans, hasn’t it? It almost seemed fitting that New York got caught up in the the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal despite not having a hand in any of it. Either way, Carlos Beltran is no longer the manager and with Spring Training literally right around the corner, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and his staff needs to make quick and crucial decisions for the upcoming season.
In times like this, it’s important to have either one player or a handful of players lead the way as if it’s business as usual. The Mets have the type of roster where a few can help accomplish that, but the one who has been the most vocal about it in a public manner is first baseman and reigning National League Rookie of the Year, Pete Alonso. There’s a good chance you’ve already seen his tweet about the scandal and how it’s impacted the Mets, but here it is again.
https://twitter.com/Pete_Alonso20/status/1217946977541009408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1217946977541009408&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sny.tv%2Fmets%2Fnews
In a time of crisis, we all need that voice telling us to calm the heck down. In the midst of the Twitter storm and conspiracy theories being thrown out left and right, SNY analyst Keith Hernandez also shared his valued thoughts. There’s more than a good chance you’ve also seen both of those tweets, but here they are again.
https://twitter.com/keithhernandez/status/1218008469577650176
https://twitter.com/keithhernandez/status/1218010071877087232
While both Alonso and Hernandez said it differently, they essentially stated the same thing.
Has the sequence of events with Beltran losing his job unfortunate? Well, yeah, of course it is. Do the Mets need a manager in place as soon as possible? Well, yeah, of course they do. Will it be the differentiator between a successful season and a disappointing one? Well, there’s some truth to that, but it’s not the singular key to success. Even if BVW hires the best possible candidate for manager, the boys still must perform at the levels expected of them to actually reach October.
Alonso speaking out in the way he did led to plenty of replies referencing him as “captain” or saying that David Wright would be proud. Once Wright made his official exit in September 2018, it was easy to wonder who would step up and assume that leadership responsibility. Based off his personality and how he carries himself on a daily basis — both on and off the field — the young first baseman already looks like a leader. If everything keeps trending this way, it may only be a matter of time before he officially gets tabbed as the organization’s next captain.
Knowing all this, I thought it was fitting and ironic that possibly the Mets’ next captain and one of the franchise’s former captains shared different versions of the same message almost exactly four hours apart from one another. It was almost as if this felt like a ceremonial passing of the torch from one admired and accomplished first baseman to another one that’s admired who also has hopes of becoming just as accomplished some day.
There’s certainly a significant difference between having a good manager leading the way and having a not-so-good manager leading the way during any particular season. However, the prevalence of analytics has made the manager’s role in daily decision making as small as it’s ever been. There have been plenty of times during the tenures of both Terry Collins and Mickey Callaway where we questioned whether a move they made was truly their decision or if it came from the front office.
It doesn’t matter who takes over the Mets for 2020 and (potentially) beyond, that situation will likely happen again on more than one occasion. What’s more important to this whole equation is for the players on New York’s big-league roster to ignore the noise and stay focused on preparing for the upcoming season. Especially since the questions will dissipate rather soon. I mean, it’s not like they’re the Astros or anything.
The Mets have a number of players who can drown out the distractions, but every squad needs a couple leaders to set the tone. Jacob deGrom seems to be the epitome of ignoring what’s happening around him in order to focus on the task at hand, so the pitching staff has that leader. Alonso seemed to step further into that role as the 2019 season wore on, and it’s just continued throughout the offseason.
It’ll be fun watching him continue getting more comfortable in this role as he keeps racking up service time. As long as Alonso is around and doing his thing, I’m not going to feel all that worried about the boys staying focused in the midst of this latest issue.
