Rebuilding, Reloading, And Resenting

There are many ways to put together a baseball team. The Atlanta Braves are rebuilding. The Washington Nationals are reloading. And the Mets patched a couple of holes with plaster in hopes of nobody knowing the difference.

The Nationals, after unloading Tyler Clippard to the Athletics, lessened the sting of that in a huge way by completing a seven year deal with Max Scherzer to come pitch for them. And before you get all mad at me, read the following very carefully: I am by no means implying that the Mets should have gone out and gotten Max Scherzer. But the Nationals going out and signing a big ticket item at a position that they were already strong at and worrying about the consequences later encapsulates why Mets fans are so frustrated at their team’s lack of movement (besides the ones who think the Mets will magically be an 88 win team because Matt Harvey is coming back). The Nats will probably trade a starter now. It will probably be Jordan Zimmermann but it might be Stephen Strasburg (audible gasp). If they do, they will do so to fill other holes or reload their farm system for the future, so the Nationals win either way. But if they say “screw it” (or “visser” as a nod to their French roots as the Montreal Expos) and keep everybody for one last run at the title … whooooooo boy.

The situations are different. It’s silly to think that the Mets should go all Padres on everybody just because I or anybody else is frustrated … especially if everybody’s first line in trade talks to Sandy Alderson is “Syndergaard”. (We do have other players … rest of league.) But to see the rich get richer while the Mets get an old outfielder and a fifth outfielder and essentially tell the world “we’re good” in November is frustrating. Maybe in some weird way the Nationals signing Scherzer will spawn the argument that is basically “see, it’s pointless to go after the division because the Nationals are going to win it easily now, so let’s just be happy to have improved enough to enter a death struggle for the second wild card.” And that is when I’ll put my head through the wall. Maybe I’ll do that anyway.

And no, I can’t suggest a better option. Not until I get paid enough to come up with one.