Written by Jared Diamond at Wall Street Journal.com
The Mets woke up Thursday still recovering from the cruelty of the wild-card game, a merciless baseball pressure cooker where one short inning can undo six hard-fought months. The dream of their second straight National League pennant and first World Series title in three decades was gone, in its place the harsh reality of a long winter filled with difficult questions for a team at a crossroads.
Between now and the early spring of February, the Mets must re-evaluate the future of their once-vaunted, suddenly rickety, pitching rotation, with Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz all coming off surgery. They need to settle personnel issues at first base, second base and perhaps even third base, with David Wright’s back condition a chronic concern.
In spite of all that, however, the Mets’ off-season—for the second year in a row—will revolve around just one player: slugging outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, their most irreplaceable asset.
“I would like to keep this team as intact as possible, just because I think we have a good thing going,” Wright said Wednesday.
Cespedes, who finished the season with 31 home runs and 86 RBIs, declined to speak with reporters after going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts against Giants ace Madison Bumgarner in Wednesday’s wild-card loss. He chatted briefly with Mets general manager Sandy Alderson and chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon by his locker before leaving the ballpark. Negotiations will likely begin in earnest after the conclusion of the World Series (presuming Cespedes does indeed opt out).
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