An Open Letter to Mets Fans Ahead of Trade Deadline
I have talked about the Mets whoes on the Ethan and Lou show many times. Every once in awhile I pick on the Mets and their fans but more often than not I am an objective observer. With all of my disclaimers out of the way I wanna say a few things.
I have heard from many Mets fans on social media and through our radio show about the rumors that surround both Jacob Degrom and Noah Syndergaard. The majority of the Mets fans I have had conversations with, say that Degrom is untouchable in terms of a trade and that they would also like to keep Noah.
This is absurd, it's no secret that the Mets farm system is a barren wasteland and your big league lineup has almost nothing desirable in it. Here was the lineup card for the Mets last game on 7/14/18:
1 - Brandon Nimmo
2 - Asdrubal Cabrera
3 - Jose Bautista
4 - Michael Conforto
5 - Wilmer Flores
6 - Kevin Plawecki
7 - Jose Reyes
8 - Amed Rosario
What I keep hearing from Mets fans is they want to keep Degrom, tear down the rest and build around "Jake." That statement SOUNDS nice. It's also ridiculous and based purely on emotion. You need to give something to get something and you have nothing to give that anyone wants EXCEPT for Jacob Degrom and Noah Synderaard.
Let's put a pin in that for a second and examine the other ways teams can rebuild. You can do it through your farm system and we already talked about how the Mets farm system is no good, so that won't work. Oh, I know, you can go out into free agency and outbid everyone on two or three of the best free agents in baseball. Wait, no, that won't work either because the Mets NEVER do that.
Now you are back to the first option, trade off your valuable players to get many back. This is it, this is the choice you are faced with. Rebuilding can look and feel uncomfortable as a fan but it's necessary. The Mets are not one or two players away from being a contender they are six or seven players away.
It should also be noted that the two players you are clinging so desperately to only appear on the field every five days assuming they are healthy. Furthermore, "The Untouchable" Jacob Degrom is 30 years of age not 24.
Fans don't make these decisions, of course I get this. I am here to tell you though that if the Mets fans WERE able to make the personnel decisions for the team you would literally be the same team you complain about year after year.
It's the same thing over and over again. It's the "IF" franchise. If the Mets can go get one more bat, if Yoenis can stay on the field, If Degrom and Syndergaard both have ace level years, if Matz can stay healthy, if Wheeler figures it out, if Rosario lives up to the hype, if Dom Smith can lose 40 lbs.
Here's the only "IF" that matters. If the New York Mets don't trade both Jacob Degrom and Noah Syndergaard either before the trade deadline or in the off-season I promise you at least five more years of irrelevant baseball.
FINAL WORD - This is not about the Yankees, I don't want there to be confusion about this being my emotional rant about why the Mets should send Degrom to the Yankees. The two teams should not deal with each other in deals this big. The potential backlash could be disastrous. I am saying all this because you have given me sports conversation fatigue or (SCF). Mets fans constantly complain about their team but when push comes to shove it seems you like the team the way it is. Good luck with that.