Reflecting on the year that was and looking ahead to 2025
Plus, an update on the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes and remembering a former Met...
What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
Market size isn’t a factor for Mets target Roki Sasaki, who is soon expected to begin the process of eliminating teams (SNY)
Sasaki has had in-person meetings with a number of teams - including the Mets and Yankees - and is now in Japan discussing his decision with his family
Joel Wolfe, Sasaki’s agent, told reporters on a Zoom call that he doesn’t expect Sasaki to sign with a team when the international signing period begins on Jan. 15. Instead, a decision is more likely between that date and Jan. 23, the deadline of Sasaki’s posting process
Most importantly for the Mets, Wolfe noted that Sasaki is driven and is targeting teams whose pitching programs will make him better. The Mets are developing quite the reputation for developing pitchers under the current administration
RIP 😔
Former Met Lenny Randle has sadly passed away at the age of 75. The National Baseball Hall of Fame confirmed the news on Monday evening.
The utility player spent spent 12-years in the major leagues, collecting over 1,000 hits during his career. Randle also racked up 322 RBIs and stole 156 bases.
Randle spent three seasons in Queens, between 1977-79, hitting .272/.358/.365/.724 with 38 doubles, 15 triples, seven home runs, 47 stolen bases and 62 RBIs.
In total, Randle hit .257/.321/.335/.656 for his career, also taking in stops with the Washington Senators, Texas, the Cubs and Seattle.
RIP, Lenny Randle.
Rumor Mill 💨
The Cubs are showing serious interest in utility player Josh Rojas, who is a free agent after being non-tendered by Seattle (MLB.com)
LHP Wade Miley, coming off Tommy John Surgery, plans to pitch in 2025 and would like to re-sign with the Brewers (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Waving a fond goodbye to 2024, and saying an excited hello to 2025…✍️
Happy New Year’s Eve!
Despite never knowing what day it is during the holiday season, we do know that today marks the final day of 2024. Come this time tomorrow, we will be waking up to a brand new year, one hopefully full of very exhilarating highs and very few lows.
That’s certainly our hope for the New York Mets as we prepare to say goodbye to what was a truly magical 2024.
Expectations could not have been much lower for a team coming off a disappointing 2023 season, and under a new baseball administration led by president of baseball operations David Stearns and first-time manager Carlos Mendoza.
Many - myself included - predicted that the Mets would miss the playoffs, but at least be competitive. Well, after a house of horrors start to the year, we were all forced to recalibrate our expectations. In other words, we had to drive them right into the basement.
Because, after a woeful May, the Mets were buried 11 games under .500 and were one of the worst teams in baseball. It also seemed like the wheels were falling off, with Jorge Lopez’s epic meltdown against the Dodgers perhaps hinting that the dysfunctional Mets were never too far away.
To put it bluntly, things were pretty damn bleak in Mets land and a long, dark summer looked set to be our fate.
However, in the blink of an eye, things changed. The Mets began to turn things around, thanks in part to players like Jose Iglesias and Luis Torrens, who were picked up off the baseball scrapheap by Stearns. Those two players in particular became driving forces in one of the most remarkable turnarounds ever witnessed in Queens.
Oh, let’s not forget Grimace, either.
The embarrassing Mets, who couldn’t get out of their own way, soon became known as the team full of good vibes, with late-game heroics quickly becoming a daily staple at Citi Field. To the soundtrack of ‘OMG’, the hit single by Iglesias, who combined an already cool day job of playing ball with an equally cool night job of making music, the Mets ripped off an MLB-best 63-36 record from June 1 onwards. Their .623 winning percentage was the perfect symbol of what was just an epic resurgence.
Led by Francisco Lindor, who put together his best year in a Mets uniform, and who would have run away with the MVP were it not for another alien-like season from the superhuman Shohei Ohtani, the Mets clinched a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season.
And clutch heroics would become a theme in the postseason, as the likes of Lindor and Pete Alonso all delivered signature moments to help lead the Mets all the way to the NLCS. I mean, Alonso’s three-run home run in the ninth inning against the Brewers, a bomb that sent New York to the Division Series, will live on in Mets lore forever.
Talk about a forever postseason moment.
Ultimately, the magic ran out, and the Mets were no match for the juggernaut Dodgers, who would go on to beat the Yankees in the World Series. But despite a heartbreaking end, 2024 will always be remembered as the year that the Mets truly arrived under owner Steve Cohen.
This was the year that the Mets became lovable and fun to root for again.
This was also the year that the New York Mets became relevant in the wider world of sports. Encouraged by the championship potential shown in 2024, and thanks to Cohen’s never-ending wealth, the organization achieved a notable first by outbidding the big, bad Yankees for a marquee, box office-free agent superstar in Juan Soto.
And so, with Soto now in Queens for the next decade plus, the Mets will enter 2025 as legitimate World Series contenders. Plus, who knows, maybe Alex Bregman or Pete Alonso— or both— will soon join Soto to really make this team formidable and a true match for the Dodgers in the National League.
Whatever happens throughout the rest of this offseason, though, the entire game has changed for this franchise, and the exhilarating thrill ride that was 2024 could be just the start of things to come.
I think we as Mets fans and as writers who cover the team will always look back on 2024 with nothing but love and fond memories. It will go down as one of the most entertaining and incredible seasons in franchise history.
But as we get ready to usher in a new year, hopefully 2025 will be even more memorable, even more fun, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a World Series and a championship parade to celebrate and write about.
Here’s to a special year ahead.
Around the League 🚩
The Nationals signed RHP Trevor Williams to a two-year $14 million deal on Monday (The Athletic)
RHP Miguel Castro, who spent some time with the Mets, signed a minor league deal with the Astros (New York Post)
The Yankees officially announced the signing of veteran 1B Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year, $12.5 million deal
2025 may not hang on either Alex Bregman or Pete Alonso, but Francisco Alvarez.
Happy New Year to all in Mets Universe!