Astros give Cohen blueprint for success
NEW YORK — It’s no secret the Mets view the Los Angeles Dodgers as a barometer for success. The Mets view the organization as a sustainable juggernaut in the same mold as the one they would like to become.
Since the Guggenheim group took over a decade ago, the Dodgers have won eight straight NL West championships, three NL pennants and a World Series. They won 111 regular season games this season and have All-stars at nearly every position, many of which are homegrown. The club has a robust analytics department and the budget to be able to sign the top free agents each winter.
It’s an enviable operation, right down to the celebrities that dot the stands behind home plate. But for all of the success, the club routinely falls short of playoff expectations. If the Mets really want a team to emulate right now, maybe it should be the Houston Astros.
With the Astros making their second-straight World Series appearance this week and the fourth since 2017, it’s worth taking a look at what has made the club so successful in that time span and how the Mets could adopt some similar philosophies.
The Houston-grown players have allowed the club to lose key players like Carlos Correa and Gerrit Cole and still remain competitive year after year, especially when it comes to pitching.
The entire staff is adept at suppressing home runs and limiting big innings. Just ask the Yankees, who were frustrated by their inability to get any offense going in the ALCS. The team that finished the regular season with the fourth-highest OPS in the league and hit more home runs than anyone else hit just .162 in the ALCS and struck out 50 times in four games.
The Astros have mastered the art of maximizing pitcher abilities. They’ve helped Javier learn to command the insanely high rise on his pitches.
And, of course, the Astros have future hall-of-famer Justin Verlander, who has acted as a mentor of sorts for some of the younger pitchers.
Max Scherzer is playing a similar role for the Mets and they have a few younger pitchers who may be ready to step into bigger roles next season in left-hander David Peterson and right-hander Tylor Megill. But the minor league system isn’t producing at nearly the same rate as the Houston system. Maybe it will over time, but for now, the Mets have to supplement and general manager Billy Eppler said the club plans to do exactly that this winter.