It’s hard to remember now, but it wasn’t that long ago that the Mets were expected to be good every year. There was a recessive lolmets gene that was always threatening to ruin everything late in the season, but they had talent. In 2008, the Mets had Johan Santana in Cy Young form. They had one of the greatest left sides of the infield we’ll see for a while, and they were young, too. They had Carlos Delgado whomping 38 dingers and Carlos Beltran in his prime. They were overstuffed with good players.
The 2015 Rangers haven’t been eliminated yet
The 2014 Rangers were the first team eliminated from the playoffs. They aren’t dead for next year, though.
Tom Szczerbowski
In 2009, the Mets were defective. Nothing worked, everything was broken. The old players were broken. The young players were broken. Everyone was broken, except for the players who were bad. The Mets led the world in days spent on the disabled list. Their offseason plan was simple: Get everyone back and add more talent. Get Jose Reyes back, get Carlos Beltran back. Get full seasons from Angel Pagan and Jeff Francoeur. Pay a premium for a great hitter like Jason Bay. It all made sense at the time.
That’s when the Mets became the Mets, though. The Mets we’re used to right now, one part bumbling, two parts irrelevant. It happened so quickly. They have the young pitching to be promising again, but it took a while for them to get back.
Which brings us to the 2014 Texas Rangers, who should scare the hell out of you.
If you’re a Rangers fan, the reasons they should scare you are obvious. In five years, you’ll be lying in bed, sound asleep, and you’ll feel the hot breath of the 2014 Rangers on your neck. You’ll scramble out of bed, turn out the lights, and nothing will be there. Nothing that you can see, anyway. You won’t go back to sleep. This team will haunt you, even in the good years.
More from our team sites
More from our team sites
If you’re a fan of one of the other 29 teams, they should scare you because they make you mutter “there but for the grace of working body parts go I” about your favorite team. This is what happens when everything -- everything -- goes wrong. The Rangers’ season has been a 19-inning perfect game thrown against them, with every ball finding a mitt, every slider getting chased, every ball getting called a strike, every bad decision magnified, every good decision irrelevant. The score was 12-0 after nine innings, but the umpires kept the game going for no good reason, and the Rangers still couldn’t do anything right.
The Rangers were officially eliminated from contention on Tuesday night, the first team in baseball with that distinction. They have the worst record in the majors. The Rangers are also expecting to contend next season, probably with a plan of “Get everyone back and add more talent.” Just like the Mets after 2008.
Don’t freak out just yet. I’m going to spend most of the rest of the article explaining why the Rangers aren’t exactly like the Mets. The specter of the 2009 Mets hangs over the head of every team, though. There’s how quickly it can happen. Here’s how quickly a team can disappear for five, 10, 15 years. One minute the Giants had Barry Bonds in left field with 45 home runs and a .609 on-base percentage. The next they had Pedro Feliz starting in left, and they were irrelevant for several years.
The offseason plan of “Get everyone back and add more talent” makes sense for the Rangers. Here’s a projected roster for next year, assuming the offseason will heal most of the literal wounds:
C - Robinson Chirinos or mystery catcher
1B - Prince Fielder
2B - Jurickson Profar/Rougned Odor
SS - Elvis Andrus/Jurickson Profar
3B - Adrian Beltre
LF - Shin-Soo Choo
CF - Leonys Martin
RF - Mystery right fielder (assuming Alex Rios’s option not picked up)
DH - Mystery DH or Mitch Moreland
P - Yu Darvish
P - Derek Holland
P - Alexi Ogando
P - Mystery pitcher or in-house youngster until Martin Perez comes back
P - Mystery pitcher or in-house youngster
How you feel about that roster probably has to do with a couple of things: How you feel about Prince Fielder, and how you feel about Shin-Shoo Choo. Both of them are in the early stages of awful contracts. Both of them aren’t exactly ancient, though, and they have a recent history of being excellent. If you’re writing them off, you’re writing off the 2015 Rangers. If you think they have a chance to contribute next year, you think the Rangers have a chance to rebound. I’m in the latter camp, which means that roster up there intrigues me. There’s youth and elite talent, with Joey Gallo lurking in the background. Pick the five or six best players from the list, and you’ll have a heckuva head start for any team.
It’s a roster you can work with, a roster that’s worth patching instead of razing. Bringing up the 2009 Mets is relevant in a lot of ways, but so is bringing up the 2012 Red Sox, who were sucked into a Murphy’s Law whirlpool, only to get spit out with a trophy on the other side of the planet. Writing the Rangers off for the next couple years is probably a bad idea, especially before you see what they do in the offseason.
Derek Holland made his season debut on the night the Rangers were eliminated, and there’s a nifty symmetry there. He pitched brilliantly, just the kind of encouragement the Rangers needed. That one start was the little plant from WALL-E, some life and hope just waiting to rise out of the rubble. Not everything bad that happened this season was because of injuries -- gee, I can’t believe J.P. Arencibia didn’t work out -- and the red flags on Fielder and Choo look a lot redder with the benefit of hindsight. Still, the Rangers are still built to win now, even if they’re currently winning fewer games than anyone else in baseball.
Get everyone back and add more talent. It’s worked before. It’s failed before. It’s not like the Rangers have another choice.
See More:
