It’s June 27th 2023, and the Mets are 35-43 and they have already started to sell off players to contending teams. Most certainly not the position we all thought they would be in this season. No sugar coating it, this definitely sucks. Every bit of it sucks. The 101 win team last year is long gone, and although the roster is pretty much the same, the results couldn’t be more different. Everything from the player’s approach at the plate, to the starter’s not being able to go more than 5 innings, to a less talented and exhausted bullpen, this team is flawed all the way through.

I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, and if you told me 4 months ago that I would be saying this in June, I would have told you that you’re insane, but the time has come for Buck Showalter to go. I have always heard the phrase “a manager can’t win a game for you, but he can definitely lose you one.” That’s essentially where we are at here. I understand that Buck can’t go out there and hit, and he can’t pitch for you, but he can put players in positions to be successful. We’re at the point in the season where you know who you can count on in positions of high leverage. I’ve said it for a long time that I believed Buck Showalter managed “for tomorrow” as opposed to “managing for today”. When you’re 10 games over .500 you can get away with things like that and tell the media that you’re looking at the big picture, and as fans, we can subscribe to that because of the given state and record of the team. But at this point when you’re 8 games under .500, every game matters that much more. At this point, the Mets had an opportunity to win their second series in the month of June, with Robertson available that day and facing the top of the order in the 8th inning up 3 runs, it would have made sense to go to the guy who has been so clutch in these situations before. Even if you couldn’t get 2 innings out of him at least you believe he gave you the best shot against the best hitters in that lineup to set up an easier 9th inning for whoever took the ball next. NOPE. Buck Showalter decided to go to Josh Walker, who has barely had a cup of coffee up in the majors this year. When that didn’t work out he still had a chance to have Robertson come in and save the game, but instead he went to Jeff Bringham, another guy who has been lack luster lately. Of course, they choked, and gave up a 3 run lead in the 8th, and go on to lose the game.

You would think after a brutal and embarrassing loss, a veteran manager would stand in front of the media, take the arrows and say “my fault”. NOPE. Instead we got an arrogant prick defending the poor decisions and blaming execution. However, the young 23 year old Brett Baty stood up in front of cameras, and shouldered the loss telling the media “that loss is on me” when we all know damn well it wasn’t . Did Baty fumbling a double play add to the misery? Of course, he wasn’t perfect, but he also had a multi hit game, scoring two runs himself. the 23 year old “Kid” showed us more maturity and poise than the 67 year old coach. The idea that Buck thought it was a better idea to fuck around with a 3 run lead and save his best arm for a hypothetical 9th inning, as opposed to ensuring that the 9th inning even exists, and then to double down in the post game presser and defend that brutal decision? That tells us that there is no sense of urgency and that you are clearly under estimating the lack of production of this ball club. I can no longer defend the guy. Is this all of his fault? Is the reason the 2023 Mets sucking all of Showalter’s fault? Absolutely not. But when a house is on fire, you better be making an attempt to get some water on it, don’t just stand there holding a can of gas shocked that the fire didn’t put itself out.

For our immediate hope, I would love to see Eric Chavez running the show by the end of this week. But my prediction, is that Steve Cohen waits till the end of the year to fire the manager. All of this sucks but life goes on. In the coming weeks I’ll speak on the trades as they go down and comment on the compensation that we get, and how it can help set up a better future for the Mets organization. For now, LFGM and thanks for reading!