Just getting into the playoffs this year is enough for now for these Mets.
But in the big picture, it must be a step in Year 1 of the Steve Cohen/David Stearns partnership. The larger ideals they are pursuing are across from them at Citi Field this weekend and looming in the coming days in Atlanta.
On Friday night, the Phillies routed the Mets 12-2 to clinch a playoff spot. Afterward, their personnel went through a subdued celebration. The expectation the larger-scale champagne spray-a-thon would come with clinching their first NL East title since 2011, which was in play beginning Saturday at Citi.
Still, it is clear now that simply getting in is not enough. The Phillies have moved their goalpost by reaching the postseason for a third straight year. After Friday’s playoff clincher, their manager, Rob Thomson, said, “This is the standard. The goal is now firmly entrenched that it’s to win a World Series. And that’s it. And that’s good to feel. It really is.”
I asked Thomson to go deeper on the “standard” before Saturday’s game and he explained, “It’s a mindset you bring going to spring training — it’s not OK to just be talking about playing .500 or wanting to be better or wanting to make positive change. It’s not good enough. It’s just not. I always say that teams that get over .500 are good, that teams that get to the playoffs are very good, but the team that wins the World Series is a great team. And we want to be great. Every year.”
Thomson said that became embedded in him during his nearly three decades working for the Yankees mostly during a championship-or-bust phase. Carlos Mendoza said his “standard” also was formed in more than 15 years working with the Yankees.
“We know we are in a tough division and that the league around us is getting better,” Mendoza said. “But the standard for us just can’t be playing meaningful games in September. We have to be playing games in October — and deep into October. Those must become the standards.”
Baby steps, though. The Phillies have been around since 1888, yet this was just the third time they have made the playoffs at least three straight years. Conversely, born in 1962, the Mets have never done that.
The Phillies were going to end the Braves’ six-year reign as NL East champs. The Mets have won the division just six times in their history — once in the 1960s, once in the 1970s, twice in the 1980s, none in the 1990s, once in the 2000s and once in the 2010s.
The Mets have won just two division titles since the Marlins joined the NL East in 1993, which is tough to do since it isn’t like the Marlins — who have never won the division — have gotten in the way.
The Mets are on the doorstep of making the playoffs in the same decade for just the second time in their history (also 1986 and ’88). But in 2022 they lost their chance to win the NL East by getting swept in Atlanta in the next-to-last series of the season. Lurking in the next-to-last series this year are three games in Atlanta. The Braves are so downgraded due to injuries of star-level players that if they get into the tournament this year, part of it will be due to a winning DNA.
The Mets are still trying to acquire that element; a trait that brings consistent excellence — and October baseball.
“I think we are on the way to that, 100 percent,” Mendoza said. “It starts with committed ownership. It is what David and his baseball people do from the top all the way to our academy in the Dominican. We have great people with a goal of making this a first-class organization.”
Among the reasons the Braves and the Phillies have become the gold standard is by forming a sustainable, high-end core that the Mets are still lacking.
The Braves have done it chiefly with a strong farm system and shrewd trading by president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos. The Phillies have done it mainly by succeeding with high-priced free agency far better than any other organization via the willingness of owner John Middleton to support significant payrolls and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski leading a group that consistently has picked the right players.
Cohen has exhibited a willingness to support record payrolls. Stearns’ history from Milwaukee is to persistently find talent that gets a club into October.
In the first year of their partnership, Cohen and Stearns would like to use the momentum of the past few months to see the Mets win a playoff round for the first time since going to the 2015 World Series. But just getting in would make this a successful season for the franchise.
Then the standard must change.
