This has been some kind of transitional season for the New York Mets.
Think back to spring training, if you can. The Mets were coming off one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history, a direct consequence of putting together a historically expensive roster only to see the whole thing fall apart from bloat. It was kind of like a clumsy, overfed baby penguin, only not nearly so cute: There's nothing adorable about a $375 million, 75-win team.
Right after the season, the Mets made the splashiest move they'd make all winter: They hired former Milwaukee baseball ops wunderkind David Stearns to right the ship. While the marriage of Stearns' small-market efficiency (perfected with the Brewers) and the sheer economic heft of the Steven Cohen-owned Mets seemed promising, there would invariably be growing pains.
In order to shake off the excesses of the past, some of which he inherited, Stearns would have to wait out some of that bloat. As he oversaw the renovation of New York's behind-the-scenes processes, things were going to have to get leaner. The Mets subsequently puttered along through a quiet winter full of short-term pickups and minor league signings. There was the failed pursuit of Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but otherwise, things were quiet around Citi Field.
Thus, entering the season, expectations were a lot more tempered than they were the year before. Two weeks before Opening Day, the Mets' over/under for wins at ESPN BET was 80.5, and that was before news came out that No. 1 starter Kodai Senga wasn't healthy and his outlook was uncertain, a status that didn't really change much all season.
During spring training, about the time those middle-of-the-road forecasts for the 2024 Mets were coming out, we visited New York's training facility in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, and sat down with Stearns for some insight about how his version of the Mets might look. Of course, Stearns would only reveal so much, so invariably a lot of what we came up with was also based on looking at how he ran the Milwaukee Brewers.
Now here we are, nearly seven months later, and the Mets are in the National League Championship Series, having beaten the Philadelphia Phillies two games to one. This leaner, transitional edition of the franchise seems to gain momentum with each late-inning comeback and division champion vanquished (including Stearns' old team in Milwaukee). Obviously, even as the Mets remain under construction, the project seems to be going well.
It's not just good fortune -- or good-luck charms -- though there has been a good amount of that. There are plenty of examples of how the principles Stearns, manager Carlos Mendoza and everyone else put in place to make the team a sustainable power are paying off on a daily basis, at the highest-stakes time of the year.
Let's run through five of these quickly sprouted pillars of the new Mets.