The Mets can't just be bad, can they?

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I’ve spent the last 12 or so hours trying to process exactly what happened at Citi Field yesterday.

This one hasn’t been easy. It’s one of those classically bizarre moments in Mets history. And not in a good way.

Last night, Rich properly articulated the incident involving Jorge López, the throwing of his glove, saying the Mets are the worst you know what team in baseball, asking his way off the team, and essentially quitting on the Mets.

First off, it took an amazing level of shameless guts for López to say what he said on camera. I can’t remember another time when a player has basically grabbed the mic and said “this team is the worst you know what team in baseball” with the intent to get booted.

Then, when Steve Gelbs gave him a chance to clarify and/or retract his statement, he doubled down on what he said.

It was truly amazing.

There is a part of me that appreciates the honesty, even if I don’t believe he should have done what he did. I am not afraid to say that in public. Too often, players just throw one cliche after the next into the mic, say nothing which is what they’re more or less trained to do, and don’t offer any sort of individual thought or context during pre and post game interviews.

I think a post game interview like this can sometimes be refreshing for the audience, even if it’s controversial, wrong, or a combination of the two. We often see interviews like this in the NBA and the NFL (the most recent coming from Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76’ers when he was angry about Knicks fans buying up tickets in Philly for their playoff series), but not in MLB.

Make no mistake - I don’t condone what López did or said. I don’t believe players should ever quit on a team no matter how bad things are going. This is a fundamental lesson taught at the earliest levels of play. We try and teach players to not be selfish, not make games or moments about themselves, and why doing that is wrong. It’s a life lesson, not just one for sports. Players are the primary reason teams do well, they’re the primary reason teams don’t do well. As I wrote yesterday, this level of losing is everyone’s fault, even if Lopez’s ERA is a respectable 3.76 on the year. But it’s not my job or my problem to condone it, accept it or not. That’s his problem, it’s the team’s problem, it’s his agent’s problem when it comes to finding him a new job in the big leagues.

Even if a player is performing well, attitude matters, and making it about the name on the front of the jersey rather than the back of the jersey is the primary component every great team in any sport at any level tries to build off of.

Quitting on a team the way López did is just passing the buck on other players and doing the exact opposite of said criteria.

But again, that’s his problem.

I don’t think the Mets are off the hook entirely on this one, either. There is a reason López feels this way - and it can’t just be because the team is bad as he’s been on bad teams before - and either they didn’t vet the player properly when they signed him or something happened along the way to piss him off.

But, whatever. Again, that’s their problem to figure out.

Incidents like this always make me look back on some of these other utterly ridiculous moments in Mets history. The funny or amazing thing is, what López yesterday did isn’t the worst of these events.

Remember, Yoenis Céspedes simply didn’t show up to a game in 2020 or again after that, which was his way of quitting on the team. He didn’t say anything - he just decided not to come anymore and went home.

Jason Vargas tried to initiate a fight with Newsday’s Tim Healey in 2019, to which Mickey Callaway botched the apology for that in truly remarkable fashion. Then there’s that time when Bobby Bonilla and Rickey Henderson were playing cards during Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS in the clubhouse, the Grant Roberts pot thing a few years after that, Carlos Delgado going on WFAN and basically saying the Mets were bored with the competition while they were in a free fall in 2007, Tom Glavine not feeling bad after the Mets blew the whole thing in 2007, and of course Vince Coleman and the firecrackers and Brett Saberhagen and the bleach.

Also, Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry’s photo day fight at spring training in the late 1980s, and so on and so forth. I know I am missing quite a few.

The Mets just can’t be bad, can they? They have to be bad with flare. It’s just a part of who they are and the character of the franchise. Nope, the Mets can’t just have bad pitching, they can’t be a bad defensive team, they can’t just be a team that can’t hit the side of a barn door if they were standing right next to one.

Nope, there always has to be drama. There always has to be a distraction. They always lose with flare. Meet the Mets.

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After yesterday’s debacle, the Mets held a players-only meeting. Francisco Lindor - as he always does even when he isn’t performing - was a standup guy and talked about what was said during that closed door meeting.

“We have to look ourselves in the mirror and say am I doing the right thing,” Lindor explained. “Am I doing everything I’ve got to be better to represent the New York Mets and to go out there and win ballgames because that’s all that matters? If you are, continue to stay in the process, but if not you have to make adjustments to the process and change it up.”

I appreciate that. Don’t get me wrong. And I always appreciate Lindor and he being the one to stand in front of the mic everyday to try and explain what’s going on with him and the team. He’s a leader here and it’s important - especially during times like this - for a player like this to be a stand up guy. David Wright was that guy year after year for this team, taking it on the chin every night in front of the camera as everyone around him floundered.

Having said that, talk is cheap.

This is about talent, this is about skill, this is about the attitude behind that talent and skill and these players utilizing those talents properly on the field. Right now, the Mets have an admittedly improperly constructed roster, they have a core group of players in Lindor, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil grossly under-performing the back of their baseball cards, and a pitching staff that more or less can’t get anyone out especially in innings 7-9.

In the end, that’s what matters and that’s what has to get fixed. Not team pow wows which usually don’t work even though we often wished they did.

It’s why it’s time for changes here. It’s time for David Stearns and Steve Cohen to stop hoping this team is going to turn it around and just shuffle the deck in areas of need. They’ve lost 25 of their last 35 games and rank at or near the bottom in every major pitching and offensive category during that span. Something simply has to give.

I am not saying start releasing or trading everyone away and calling up minor leaguers. That isn’t going to work entirely, either (although they are at a point where its time to start thinking about some of the top level minor leaguers, namely Luisangel Acuña).

It starts with figuring out which one of Brett Baty or Mark Vientos is the one for third base, which quality they need more and move on from the other player. Take a stand on it, for better or for worse and go from there.

Then they need to get a backup middle infielder. They non-tendered Luis Guillorme in the winter and tried to piece it together with Zack Short and Joey Wendle.

That strategy blew up in their face like Mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke.

Go out and find help for Lindor and McNeil, especially if they want their performances to improve. They can’t play every inning of every game. Just trade for someone already. Figure it out. This is what GM’s do. This one specifically is on David Stearns.

They also need to figure out how to close this valve from the seventh inning on. They’ve allowed a whopping 68 runs in the seventh inning or later since April 21, the bulk of those runs coming in the last two weeks. That is 37 percent of the total number of runs they’ve allowed, which itself ranks 29th in baseball during that span.

And now, Edwin Díaz is on the injured list on top of it all.

It’s impossible to expect a bullpen without Díaz, Brooks Raley and now López to be able to solve that problem.

Again, hoping people simply perform better is not going to work for the Mets or any team.

In summary, what happened yesterday wasn’t just an isolated incident. It was the culmination of everything that has happened with this team over the last six weeks, and everyone from Cohen down to the last player on the roster is responsible for that final moment with López.

I’m tired of the excuses too. I’m tired of hearing about Lindor’s vision issue, or Nimmo’s bad luck, or Diaz’s lack of confidence, and on and on and on. This is what losing clubs do. Excuse poor play.

This is all a crock of shit.

Play better. Manage better. Strategize better. Make the roster better and construct it properly. You’re the best in the world. There are millions of people who would do anything to have your job. Enough with the bullshit and the hoping and waiting and all of this crap. Go out there and be the players you keep saying you are but haven’t been in two years, go out and earn your money.

That’s called accountability, that’s what owning a problem means. That is the only way this will all get fixed.

This is a cultural flaw which, again, can’t be hoped or wished away.