By Joe D.

Years from now when we look back at the 2019 New York Mets season, I wonder what history will tell us.

Will it tell us that the Mets had an extraordinarily exciting second half but came up short?

I’m sure the optimists among us will hang their hats on that…

Or will it tell us that it was an incredible waste of elite individual performances, up and coming stars, a top flight rotation, a power-packed offense, and sadly, the loss of five top-ten prospects?

Regrettably, I fear it will be the latter.

Eleven times in the wild-card era, one team has won two of the three major player awards; MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year. All 11 times, that team made the playoffs… The Mets are about to break that streak.

You can bet your bottom dollar that when they start handing out the hardware this offseason, that the Mets will come away with this season’s Rookie of the Year in Pete Alonso, and for the second year in a row, the Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom.

In Alonso and deGrom, the Mets were ingratiated and blessed with two of the  most spectacular performances in franchise history. Two memorable and captivating performances for the ages and for the record books.

Its amazing to me that we could have the best slugger and the best starting pitcher in the league if not all of baseball, and yet the best this team could do is a third place finish and less than 90 wins. It sounds inconceivable.

How could this team — led by two incredible talents like Alonso and deGrom — fail to make the postseason, especially in this two wild card era? Who is to blame for this debacle and utter failure?

It becomes even more frustrating, or should I say maddening, when I take a closer look and delve into some of the other noteworthy and remarkable achievements of this 2019 team, like the emergences of shortstop Amed Rosario and everyman Jeff McNeil for example.

If you look up and down this Mets roster, it’s literally peppered with career years, overachievers and breakthrough performances, and yet third place was the best we could do?

After the Mets were eliminated last night I found myself feeling disappointed of course, but I was also mad… I was also pissed off.

I thought about the rises of Seth Lugo (2.77 ERA) and Justin Wilson (2.54 ERA) in the bullpen. Why did it take until mid August to put them in their closer and setup roles?

Can you believe that in addition to Pete Alonso and his 50+ home runs and 115+ RBIs, we also had Michael Conforto who has 33 homers and 92 ribbies?

In fact, the Mets have already smashed their franchise record for home runs in a season and currently have 235 homers and counting. You think about that and it blows your mind.

Even when you examine the pitching side of things beyond the achievements of Jacob deGrom, it’s not like Noah Syndergaard (3.61 FIP), Zack Wheeler (3.47 FIP) and Steven Matz (4.63 FIP ) were slouches.

They each had seasons that you can easily quantify as above league average, and more so for Thor and Wheeler who officially becomes a free agent in one week.

Additionally, for the first time I can remember in a very long time, our top four starting pitchers will have started at least 30 games each. And 80-something wins was the best we could do?

Photo: Tracy Proffitt, MiLB.com

All of the above is no doubt sad, but what really makes me mad is that we traded away so many of our best prospects including Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn, Anthony  Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson.

That stings…

When you deal prospects that high up the ladder you better finish higher than third freaking place. I’m sorry, that’s just the way I feel.

Anyway, the bottom line for me when I look back at this season is that it was certainly not a disaster… It wasn’t a failure…

There were a lot of thrills and exciting performances… There were plenty of amazing comebacks and unforgettable moments…

It was a season that started off badly but finished with a dominating second half that I’m hoping bodes well for 2020. In other words, it was a nice ride.

But the fact that the best this team could do is finish in third place, leaves me gasping for answers.

Someone has to bear the brunt of the responsibility for how this season ultimately transpired.

We really need to see some real accountability when this season finally grinds to an end this weekend.

LGM