WHATEVER HAPPENS, ‘IT’S BEEN FUN’
Rojas, Mets say goodbye to Queens for 2021
Thursday brought the Mets’ last home game of their cursed 2021 season. That much is a guarantee. What’s not set in stone yet, but has been foreboding for weeks, is the looming dismissal of manager Luis Rojas. When asked before Thursday’s game about the possibility that it would be his last at Citi Field, Rojas was careful not to treat it as a certainty.
“We don’t know yet,” Rojas hoped. “We have to get there first and find out what’s going to happen.”
Rojas had two seasons in the Mets’ dugout: one during the 60-game pandemic season and one in which his team swindled a 90-day run at the top of the division. It’s a job that would make even the most patient person go gray in the temples, and Rojas has undoubtedly felt the adverse effects of being a manager in New Yor. Still, the perpetually level-headed 38-year-old said he’ll think of his time in Queens positively, no matter when it ends.
“I’ve enjoyed my time here, the last two years, being the manager,” he said. “It’s been fun, every day, working with the guys and connecting with them.”
“We haven’t achieved what we wanted to achieve. But, the atmosphere in the clubhouse has been one of the most important things I can think of these last two years, how everyone gets along in the clubhouse. Even though we haven’t gotten the results, that’s the one thing I want to single out. It’s been pretty special with both groups, last year’s and this one.”
Should Rojas get fired at the end of the season — a creeping inevitability — he’d join Joe Frazier, George Bamberger, Bud Harrelson, Jeff Torborg, Art Howe and Mickey Callaway as Mets skippers who lasted only two years on the job.
STROMAN DONE FOR THE YEAR
Marcus Stroman, who was lined up to pitch on Sunday in the final game of the season, will no longer get the call. Instead, Noah Syndergaard will start Sunday’s game in an opener role, with the following pitcher to be revealed. Tylor Megill is starting Friday’s series opener in Atlanta, and Trevor Williams is the man for Saturday.
With Rojas’ announcement that Stroman isn’t going on Sunday anymore, that closes the book on the fiery right-hander’s season. He threw 179 innings, striking out 158 and logging a 3.02 ERA. At 3.4 Wins Above Replacement, Stroman is likely to finish in the top 20 of all National League pitchers. In addition to the career-best ERA, he also set a personal best in strikeout rate at 21.6%.
FISH NOT BITING
The Mets were 9-9 against the last-place Marlins when they met for the final time on Thursday night. The season could have had a different feel down the stretch had the Mets been able to get their hooks in the Marlins, who they lost series to in May and early August. A team like the Mets, which began the season with playoff aspirations, should have put together a much stronger campaign against the perennially rebuilding foes from South Florida.
“Their pitching stands out. They have really good pitching,” Rojas said when confronted with the idea that
his team has a Marlins problem. “They particularly have really good guys to match up against our hitters. They have the ability to keep a lineup quiet. We haven’t been that offensive team this year that we expected to be, and facing a team with arms like that, they can gain some momentum.”
METS’ EXES DOING WELL
As the Mets began their tumble down the standings, the Mariners made a surge in the American League. Two major pieces of Seattle’s cinderella season (reliever Paul Sewald and starter Chris Flexen) were Mets castoffs. Sewald debuted with the Mets in 2017 and had a 5.50 ERA in his four years with the club, including a 13.50 in six innings last season. Now, he’s striking out an absurd 38.8% of hitters he sees and getting the Mariners out of high-leverage jams seemingly every night.
Flexen cracked the Mets’ big-league roster for the first time in 2017. He spent three years with the team and had an 8.07 ERA in 68 MLB innings. Pitching in Korea in 2020 seemed to straighten him out, as the 26-year-old returned stateside with a vengeance. He is one of 24 pitchers in the league to have an ERA under 4.00 in at least 30 starts.