Ed Delany/MMO
The holiday season encompasses a lot of moving parts.
Sure, it’s nice to spend time with family, eat tasty food, crack open a few cold ones and enjoy the festivities, but it also comes with a lot of stress. Having to wait in line for presents, wondering if the ones you ordered in the mail are going to come in time, having to wrap said presents, and yes, spending time with your family also falls in this category as well.
Spring Training elicits a lot of similar emotions to the holiday season, only it’s exclusively pure excitement. The beginning of a new baseball season! Hopes are high, the incumbent guys mingling with the new offseason acquisitions, and in the Mets case in 2021, they’re doing it all under a brand spanking new owner.
It was a busy offseason for new owner Steve Cohen’s Mets. There were a few dark points such as the disgusting allegations against now former general manager Jared Porter and coach Ryan Ellis, but New York acted swiftly and reportedly have more stringent vetting processes and standards in place so these things don’t happen again.
Even this showed a major difference from the previous ownership group, and hopefully, they stick to their word and prevent circumstances like this from happening in the first place.
Beyond handling those situations properly, Cohen revamped the front office, filled out a coaching staff, and turned over nearly 50 percent of the team’s 40-man roster.
Now, there are Mets fans that will tell you that this offseason was a failure. Sure, the team whiffed on the top free agent available in pitcher Trevor Bauer, but maybe even that’s for the better, as he’s barely into his Los Angeles Dodgers tenure and is already wreaking havoc on the Twittersphere.
Sure, outfielder George Springer going to Toronto stings because he actually would have been a huge acquisition to the team, but the Mets did add one of the best young talents in the game in shortstop Francisco Lindor and a extremely reliable starter in Carlos Carrasco in a move that somehow flies under the radar.
The Mets already had a fun, easy group of young talent to root for in Pete Alonso, Dominic Smith, Michael Conforto, Jacob deGrom and Jeff McNeil among others, but they’ve added several guys into the fold who seem easy to root for.
The aforementioned Carrasco has beat cancer and took home the Roberto Clemente Award in 2019 due to his contributions and charity work in several different countries. Plus, he comes with wild stories. He also ordered Domino’s Pizza for three months straight when he first entered pro ball because it was the only thing he knew how to go about getting. He got free pizza for a month from them in return.
The newest Mets’ pitcher Taijuan Walker popped open a bottle of wine from the late Tom Seaver‘s vineyard after he signed with the team, and released a statement saying he’s ecstatic to join such a talented team and can’t wait to win in the Big Apple.
You have new reliever Trevor May interacting with fans on Twitter and talking to them when he streams on Twitch. There’s catcher James McCann who has made it a priority to reach out to the pitching staff throughout the winter. Reliever Aaron Loup wants to toss back some brewski’s in the clubhouse after working as an opener.
And even incumbent Mets Marcus Stroman, Noah Syndergaard and deGrom are all getting fans pumped in their own ways. Stroman’s excitement and initiative to be the best that he can and radiate positive vibes. Syndergaard throwing down a string of noogies on Bauer over Twitter. DeGrom hinting that he wants to be a Met for life.
It’s refreshing and it’s contagious.
The vibe around the Mets this year is extremely exciting and the team has a lot of players that are easy to root for. This is just a damn good group of guys on and off the field.
So yeah, I think Christmas comes a bit late for me usually, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
