For years baseball has discussed shortening the 162 game season, but if that happened we wouldn’t get the improbable turnaround of the New York Yankees, and the continued colossal collapse of the New York Mets. Entering Sundays play, the Yankees(72-52) had won nine straight, and were 29-11 since that Subway series doubleheader on July 4th to pull themselves back into the thick of the playoff race and in Wildcard position, while the Mets(60-63 entering Friday) have went 17-26, and seeing the NL East slip away by the day. However, something that teams have had in common was the fact they both went through a severe string of injuries at some point this season, but the Mets have seemed to fall while getting healthier, with the Yankees only getting better overcoming their own injury crisis.
So why are two teams who were once parallel now perpendicular? Let’s get into it!
1. TRADE DEADLINE:
The Yankees needed some reinforcements and went out and got them in Joey Gallo from the Texas Rangers, and Anthony Rizzo
from the Cubs, which has seemed to ignite the team, who sport an 18-4 record entering since those acquisitions took place.
Meanwhile, all the Mets got was a below-average shortstop in Javy Baez, who was more of “Fill-in” for the injured Lindor rather than someone the team needed for a championship run. As a result, “Baseball nature” ran its course, and the Mets have seemed worn down physically and mentally.
2. EXPERIENCE
Many of these Yankees were on the 2019 team that broke the record for most injuries in a season, so it’s no suprise (To them at least) that this team seems thrives when the IL gets clogged up. New hero’s like Andrew Velasquez are definitely giving guys like Gleyber Torres, and Gio Urshela a lot to think about right now, just as Anthony Rizzo did to Luke Voit, before he came back. Now, both have been mashing at the top of the order for the Yankees, most recently in Saturday’s 7-1 victory over the Twins, which was the teams seventh straight win, and 16th in their last 19 games.
As for the Mets, it was a flash in the pan when stars in Micheal Conforto and Brandon Nimmo went down among others, but since they’ve returned, the team has lost its “edge”, because the pressure of living up those expectations are back on.
The Yankees have turned a negative into a positive, while the Mets have refused to make the mix work, and it’s costing them in the standings.
3. DEPTH:
The word “Depth” in baseball is thrown around loosely because we often talk about the farm system, and while the Mets do have more talent down there, one of the Yankees have transcended into contention from a possible rebuilding phase at the deadline is because of youngsters like Luis Gil, Jonathan Losiga, Kyle Higashioka, Andrew Velasquez, Nestor Cortes JR, Albert Abreu, and yes although he was traded here he still did have to work his way up the “Circle of trust” in reliver Wandy Peralta. Once again, NYY GM Brian Cashman has pulled the strings to make this team relevant for the 29th straight year.
Meanwhile, the Mets depth has been the teams achilles heal as of late, with pitchers like Carlos Carrasco, David Pedersen, Trevor May, and yes Francisco Lindor have all struggled to produce for the 2021 Amazins, due to injury to their poor play.
What do they all have in common you ask? Well, the Mets had to give up something to get those players here whether it was draft picks or prospects, and those haven’t exactly worked out as planned. It has put the Mets depth to the test, which has failed, leaving many to wonder why they didn’t make that buzzer-beating trade deadline deal with the Minnesota Twins, that would’ve acquired an ace in Kenta Madeda, and a bat In Josh Donaldson over “Salary%”. So if you’re wondering why, this offense is as owner Steven Cohen said “Unproductive” lately, it’s likely due to the fact it was never really good in the first place, because unlike the Yankees, you don’t have guys like Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit, and Gary Sánchez that can mash the ball into the seats, notch some “Hard-hits” or even work counts. Instead, it’s a “Swing-free” philosophy one that started from uptop at the beginning of the season, and has now seen it catch up them.
Stars like Donaldson, and Maeda could’ve possibly flipped the script, and made your team deeper. But instead, money got in the way of that happening, and you’re now left with a team hovering around.500 in the worst division in baseball. It has truly been an utter collapse, and one that needs major fixing come wintertime.
So in conclusion, it comes down to culture, attitude, and taking risks, which is what not only separates the 2021 versions of the Yankees and Mets, but the amount of impact both organizations have made
towards rewriting baseball history as we know it.
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