Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports
MLB: New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies
(Queens, NY) – It seems the majority of Mets fans are expecting a total dud of a season in 2024.
To be fair, that would make sense following last season’s let down that ended with 75 wins and no playoffs. But this is also a team that won 101 games in 2022 and then faltered amid some injuries to key players. So will this year’s squad come any closer to bringing Mets fans that elusive World Series title – which hasn’t been celebrated in Queens since 1986? The short answer is: probably not. Yet you can’t always predict baseball – and that’s why they play the games.
Following a relatively quiet offseason, in which the Mets looked to build up depth within the starting rotation and bullpen while also improving the team’s defense, team leader Francisco Lindor doesn’t care about outside perceptions. If people think the Mets are going to stink, it’s not impacting the club’s outspoken shortstop. He spoke to reporters from spring training Thursday morning and said “It don’t matter. Nobody was expecting the Diamondbacks, but I’m sure they were.
Probably not too many people were expecting the Rangers, either. But I’m sure they were, as well.” Lindor says the most relevant mindset is within the team’s clubhouse – not elsewhere: “Every team is gonna be in the same boat. It’s not about the expectations outside. It’s what you believe and what you think you can do.” And he sees upside in the Mets, given that much is still “to be determined.” Someone asked Lindor what the team’s strength was, to which he replied “The unknown. The unknown of what we can do. So, we’ll see.”
Lindor liked what he saw from new president of baseball operations David Stearns, saying “I feel (he) did a really good job. They had a plan, an approach, and they executed. I feel like there’s still, I think, a couple of pieces, from what I keep on hearing from Stearns — from what he’s said in the media a couple of times that there might be one or two things (left). But, yeah, I feel like we’re in a good spot.”
And, going back to the out-of-nowhere Diamondbacks, as well as the World Series champion Texas Rangers (who had massive expectations of their own in 2022 before falling flat, then bouncing back) Lindor expounded on the potential similarities: “We all know we can do it. We all know we can go out there and play the game the right way and win ball games. It ultimately comes down to — everybody in the big leagues can play the game. It’s who can play it better, who can play the game the right way day in and day out, who can be more consistent. At the end of the day, it’s just a chance of being in October. Once you’re in October, anything can happen.”
One thing’s for sure: you can never count out any MLB club. And Lindor wants to make sure no one writes his story – or the team’s – before Opening Day even rolls around. “I don’t see myself as an underdog. I don’t. Whatever people have in their minds, I have my own expectations for myself and for the team.”
