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It was originally billed as a National League title fight, two heavyweights with enough star power and financial clout to create their own galaxy, but the weekend series between the New York Mets and San Diego Padres instead served only as a cruel and punishing reminder.
“Talent alone doesn’t mean you’re going to win anything,’’ Mets Cy Young winner Max Scherzer told USA TODAY Sports. “Every team has talent. It’s Major League Baseball, any team can beat you. It’s not like college sports where you have some weekends where you can completely out-talent somebody.
“You need more than just talent.
“Much more.’’
The Mets and Padres, two teams who met in last year’s wild-card round and spent the winter trying to buy a championship, felt like they were staring at a mirror playing against one another with identical 42-47 records entering Sunday’s game at Petco Park in San Diego.
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Two grossly underperforming teams who would each be sitting home in October if the season ended at the All-Star break.
The Mets’ six-game winning streak was snapped on Saturday after a 3-1 loss to the Padres, and although they are dead and buried in the NL East race with Atlanta playing like the ’27 Yankees, they are just 6 ½ games out of the final wild-card spot.
“I think June (7-19) was the most painful month I’ve ever been a part of,’’ Scherzer said. “Everything that could have gone wrong, did. But once the calendar went from June to July, everything is suddenly going right for us. It’s like a switch went off.’’
One one week after owner Steve Cohen held his own press conference to say how brutally disappointed he was with his team, threatening they could be sellers instead of buyers at the trade deadline, the Mets are starting to resemble the highest-paid team in baseball history.
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Francisco Lindor is finally playing like a $341 million shortstop.
Second baseman Jeff McNeil is beginning to hit like the defending 2022 batting champion.
Rookie catcher Francisco Alvarez is impersonating Mike Piazza.
Justin Verlander and Scherzer are pitching like two stars who have won six Cy Young awards between them.
And all of the noise debating whether manager Buck Showalter or GM Billy Eppler or both should be fired, has been doused by their recent winning streak.
“Before this little streak we’re on,’’ Mets outfielder Mark Canha said, “it felt like it was going the other way. Well, it’s finally going our way. Bad stretches can happen to anybody, and we know we’re good.”
“The sky is the limit for this team.’’
Certainly, the Mets are hardly the only disappointing team in baseball. The baseball landscape is filled with underachievers with the Padres and Seattle Mariners out West, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox in the Midwest, and the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays in the East.
Misery loves company, right?
“We don’t go look around the league and saying, ‘Oh, they’re struggling too,’ to make us feel better,’’ Lindor said. “We really don’t care about the other people. We know we’ve been struggling. We’re on the way. Things are moving in the right direction.
“We’re going to make something out of this.”
Certainly, anything less than playing games before the Halloween decorations go up will be a colossal failure.
This is a team that will wind up spending about $500 million in payroll this year, factoring luxury taxes, nearly twice as much as any team in baseball history. Remember, they are paying a 90% tax on anything beyond $293 million.
It’s hardly what Cohen envisioned when he opened his check book this winter.
“It’s terrible, that’s not what I expected,’’ Cohen said at his press conference. “We’ll see if they can get their act together. We got to get going.’’
METS OWNER:Steve Cohen frustrated, hints at selling at MLB trade deadline
The Padres spent the most money of any baseball team outside of New York, a franchise record $247 million.
Owner Peter Seidler, after a wild spending spree, says he continues to have faith that things will turn around.
His players have shown no signs they share the same sentiments.
Life is so miserable for the Padres these days that their most productive player, Ha-Seong Kim, bruised his right big toe Friday night kicking a water cooler out of frustration, believing it was empty.
The cooler was full, causing him to leave the game and sit of Saturday’s lineup.
Considering the Padres have a Mount Rushmore top of the lineup with Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts, and three players guaranteed at least $280 million, missing the postseason would qualify them as the most underachieving team in baseball history.
They have shown no sign of life when they get down in games, 1-36 when trailing after seven innings. They have failed to win a single extra-inning game, and are 5-15 in one-run games. They’re hitting .222 with runners in scoring position. They have squandered their league-leading 39 quality starts, going just 27-20 when their starters go six innings.
“That’s the thing about baseball, a lot of it doesn’t make sense,” Padres veteran pitcher Seth Lugo told the San Diego Union-Tribune this week. “Baseball’s messed up like that. That’s all that makes sense, because nothing else does.”
The Mets are trying to create a sense of normalcy, while also building an identity. They are 27-4 when their starters go at least six innings.
They finally have five healthy starters, and could have a sixth with the return of veteran left-hander Jose Quintana after the All-Star break.
“We’ve got to play playoff baseball the rest of the season now,’’ Scherzer said. “We have no choice.’’
What went wrong with the Mets?
The Mets can’t explain how they exactly they got into this predicament in the first place. It started with the season-ending knee injury to All-Star closer Edwin Diaz in the WBC, injuries to Verlander and Quintana, and disappointing performances by virtually every hitter in the lineup but Nimmo and Alvarez.
Mets closer David Robertson has his own theory: baseball’s new rule changes.
This is a veteran team with few players who played a baseball games with a pitch clock before this season, and they badly struggled, Robertson says, trying to adapt on the fly.
“You chunk in a whole bunch of new rules in baseball randomly on a bunch of players who weren’t expecting it,’’ Roberts says, “it’s a problem. You got to play a new game of baseball, which is completely different than anything I’ve done in my entire career. It takes basically everything I’ve learned how to do in my career, and just throw it away.
“Now, you get a ball, grab it, and throw it as fast as you can because you’ll run out of time. It’s a joke. The younger teams have guys who were forced to do it in the minors, and they’re used to playing at that pace, but a lot of us now are trying to adjust to it.
“The rules were changed [favorably] for some teams, and not others. Nothing interrupted the younger teams’ routine.’’
Around the basepaths
≻ Teams inquiring about Los Angeles Angels All-Star Shohei Ohtani have been told that owner Arte Moreno still has every intention of keeping him for the remainder of the season in hopes they can re-sign him as a free agent.
Teams are hoping that Moreno changes his mind if they continue to struggle with three-time MVP Mike Trout out until late August with a broken hamate bone.
Yet, besides not wanting to forever live with the stigma of being the team that traded away the greatest two-way player in the history of the game, the Angels happen to earn about $20 million a year in marketing and sponsorships from Ohtani.
So how can anyone possibly deliver a package that would satisfy the Angels?
≻ The Major League Baseball Players Association is paying close attention to what transpires with Ohtani in free agency where he’s expected to easily command the largest contract in baseball history.
“I don’t need to pound the pavement here,’’ said Tony Clark, executive director of the players union, “but Ohtani is unlike anyone we’ve ever seen before. So it will be interesting to see how that manifests itself, both in free agency and even over the next couple of months.’’
So, just how much will someone pay Ohtani?
“Someone on our team plane the other day mentioned the “B’’ word,’’ Mets manager Buck Showalter said.
Yes, that is “B’’, as in billion.
Realistically, executives believe he’ll receive between $500 million to $550 million.
≻ Rival GMs believe the Padres should unload starter Blake Snell and All-Star closer Josh Hader among others at the deadline, while also listening to offers for Juan Soto.
Yet, two GMs were informed that the Padres instead plan to be aggressive at the trade deadline and possibly even be buyers.
≻ The Texas Rangers have shown strong interest in White Sox veteran starter Lance Lynn, who struck out a franchise-record 16 batters and 11 batters in two of his last four starts. Lynn is earning $18.5 million this year with an $18.5 million club option or $1 million buyout in 2024.
Teams who have inquired say the White Sox continue to have a high asking price for him.
≻ Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa, who has been battling serious health issues the past year, recently received encouraging medical reports that his treatments have been successful.
≻ Just how popular have the new rules resonated with baseball fans this year?
Attendance has risen by 8% with nearly 2.8 million more fans than a year ago, with 23 of the 30 clubs showing an increase, including 12 teams with an increase of more than 10%.
There is a 26% increase across MLB’s digital platforms.
Baseball games have outperformed all cable stations in primetime in 22 of their 25 U.S. markets.
TV ratings among viewers 35 or younger has increased by 14%.
≻ The Seattle Mariners, starting to show signs of life with their recent resurgence, are telling teams they are seeking another bat, and a starter.
Welcome to the club.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds also have pressing needs for pitching help.
≻ The Baltimore Orioles say they will listen to offers for their loaded infield surplus in exchange for pitching help, while the D-backs are doing the same with their deep outfield corps.
≻ GMs believe the top available starters at the trade deadline will be:
- Marcus Stroman, Cubs
- Lucas Giolito, White Sox
- James Paxton, Red Sox
- Jordan Montgomery, Cardinals
- Jack Flaherty, Cardinals
- Lance Lynn, White Sox
- Eduardo Rodriguez, Tigers
- Michael Lorenzen, Tigers
- Paul Blackburn, Athletics
Providing there is no change in the Angels’ plans with Ohtani, the most intriguing decision may be whether the Cleveland Guardians trade ace Shane Bieber for offensive help.
≻ The players union has no power to stop the Oakland A’s from moving to Las Vegas, but they do have input in where the A’s try to play between 2025-2027 when they need a temporary home after their Oakland Coliseum lease expires after the 2024 season. Their proposed new ballpark in Las Vegas isn’t scheduled to be ready until 2028.
“We don’t have a formal seat at the table in regards to relocation,’’ said Tony Clark. “Our ability to engage formally comes once it happens, and what it’s going to look at. In the event that there are disagreements with the channels associated with that, that’s a different conversation than the relocation itself. ….
“The whole process has been interesting. I truly don’t know why certain decisions have been made to the extent they’ve been made or what discussions have been had that we haven’t been privy to.’’
≻ Remember when Ohtani donated his entire $150,000 payday for participating in the Home Run Derby two years ago to the Angels’ clubhouse workers, public relations staffers and trainers?
Well, according to a person close to Ohtani, he had actually planned to donate the entire $1 million if he had won the derby.
And you wonder why he’s beloved in Anaheim?
Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale
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