Get two hits and score one run in the first inning. Get two hits and score no runs the rest of the way. Unless you’re planning on throwing a shutout, you’ve just guaranteed yourself a futile afternoon in Arlington. I don’t know what plans the Mets had, but they didn’t throw a shutout on Thursday. Thus, it seemed certain a loss was on tap.
So it was, with the Texas Rangers, who needed the game a whole lot more than the Mets did, grabbing it, 3-1. Zac Thornton [1] was competent in his final start of the season, going five innings and allowing only a two-run homer to Josh Jung in the bottom of the first as damage, but the Mets bats were too sleepy to stir to life from the second through the fifth versus the Mets’ 2021 first-round draft pick Kumar Rocker. Rocker never signed with the Mets. Five years later, he made them pay a little.
The Rangers of Brandon Nimmo (still strange to contemplate) and Jacob deGrom (never won’t be weird) had to have this game to keep them viable as a possible division champion, sub-.500 record notwithstanding, and they got it [2]. Their post-Rocker relievers kept things humming. Corey Seager, the MVP of the World Series for that very team only three years ago, added a home run off Jefry Yan in the sixth. That was that. The Mets, who appeared alive and well the two previous nights despite being totally out of all playoff races, lacked the sufficient oomph to complete a sweep. We were left to be satisfied that Thornton looked pretty good and has established pretty good as a baseline for his future.
For most of these past two months, we’ve been delighted with pretty good, which is not to be confused with the Larry David seal of approval for that which is pretty, pretty good. The young pitching embodied by Thornton, Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and, assuming his knee is OK, Christian Scott, has been pretty good. The irregulars — like Luis Torrens and pre-injury Jared Young — have been pretty good, especially when measured against expectations. The youngsters who are no longer rookies but don’t feel like veterans, which is to say strategically deployed Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez on his best days, have been pretty good. The true youngsters, Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing, provide sufficient evidence they can be more than pretty good; Benge might already be rising to the next level. The bullpen, its members too numerous to name, has been shockingly pretty good, though any time all a Met bullpen gives up over four innings is one run, that’s great.
What was supposed to have been the core of this team, the experienced leader types who have starred previously, have averaged out to pretty good. Had they been healthier or quicker to settle into their circumstances or immune to aging, maybe they would have lived up to their notices. Bo Bichette started badly but turned solid. Marcus Semien never got untracked but has contributed on occasion. Juan Soto’s had Juan Soto stretches when not sidelined. Francisco Lindor has ascended from his depths but fallen short of his standard.
And Andy Green, newly minted manager of the Mets for real, no longer sharing interim status with the likes of Salty Parker and Mike Cubbage, has been pretty good, too. I’m satisfied he’s been hired to continue doing what he’s been doing. The Mets came to play better with him managing than they did under his predecessor. There are games when we’re reminded they weren’t pretty good to begin with, so you can’t be too crestfallen when they lose, 3-1. There are games when you believe they can build on having gotten pretty good after they arose from having been mostly dismal.
I imagine there are nits to pick if that’s your impulse, but I saw no reason to not be satisfied that Green wanted to come back and that the Mets wanted him back. That’s not the same as saying, oh boy, this guy is irreplaceable and must be kept at all costs. Andy, who now has grown familiar enough to be referred to in first-name fashion, hasn’t had a high bar to scale. Nearly every story I’ve consumed about Andy Green seems to be he tells a player he can do a little better, the player does a little better, and isn’t that amazing? Ideally, this is the sort of influence that accumulates in the long run. It’s not that exciting in the moment. The Mets are one loss from clinching sole possession of last place. Nothing’s that exciting in the moment.
The moment for 2026 never materialized. I had a lot of fun with this team during August and spots of September, but when you get a game like Thursday’s, you’re reminded it was always too little, too late, at least in the present. The future’s unknowability irks, but maybe this can all be looked back upon as a platform from which growth occurred. We kept the manager, and he knew what he was doing, and it showed. We kept the president of baseball operations, who made some questionable (to put it kindly) personnel decisions in the offseason, setting the stage for what became an undeniably off season, but he’s the same executive who’s overseen the development of the Benges and McLeans, so give him that and give us continuity. I don’t know that David Stearns, with a hand from Derek Falvey [3], is about to prove himself the reincarnation of Frank Cashen rather than architect of the worst implosion since Al Harazin, but, as with the manager role, I don’t want to start fresh in the front office. I don’t want a next guy coming in wholly untethered to what a last guy did. I think that’s how you become prone to deciding trading Pete Crow-Armstrong [4] is a worthwhile endeavor, to cite an extreme example.
The best thing the 2027 Mets will have going for them, should there be a 2027 season, is the volatility of contention in contemporary Major League Baseball. A few teams do remain contenders year-in and year-out. A few have remained glued to the bottom of the standings annually. But the vast middle gets shaken up year to year. It’s not what Steve Cohen was aiming for when he took over, and perhaps a little patience and foresight and whatever will build us into something more. Pretty good, however, over six months can get you somewhere. It worked for us in 2024. It’s working for several teams, including the Rangers of Nimmo and deGrom, in 2026. I’d take a shot at a division title heading into the final weekend over a shot at not finishing last. Keep doing a little better. The vast middle may be within our grasp.