Even when they went further than the Yankees in the playoffs in 2006, the Mets still were not the New York baseball team under the most pressure.
Even when they played the Yankees in the 2000 World Series, the Mets were not the team that had to win.
For more than two decades now, the Yankees have faced the most pressure not just in New York, but pretty much the whole sport as they had to honor their history, payroll and the Steinbrenner credo of championship or bust.
But now …
The Mets went further in the postseason last year. They spent way more than the Yankees this offseason — heck, every team in the majors has spent more in free agency than the Yankees this offseason. And for the first time since the heyday of Straw and Doc and Kid and Mex, the Mets have a greater mandate to win. It is the Mets who face Canyon of Heroes or Mountain of Misery.
The Yankees would never publicly admit it, but they are playing the long game, trying to clean up their payroll, reduce the age on their roster and build up their athleticism and depth. The willingness to take on the controversy and potential suspension that came with acquiring Aroldis Chapman while he still had domestic abuse allegations lingering over him shows the Yankees want to have some shot to win it all, should things break right.
But the Yankees already quietly have a Plan B if they are not contenders come July in which they trade players such as Chapman for more prospects. They are trying to accumulate the young talent and financial flexibility to position themselves for the kind of sustained run that has allowed them to dominate New York baseball since Bill Clinton’s first term.
The Mets endured the age/payroll cleansing for the first four years of general manager Sandy Alderson’s regime. That positioned the Mets to behave like a go-for-it, big-market team last July. The trade for Yoenis Cespedes, the World Series appearance and the eventual re-signing of Cespedes have changed the perception of the Mets. Rebuilding is so yesterday. They have taken their payroll back to around $140 million and expectations have climbed concurrently.
Even more than the Yankees, they are now championship or bust. They are the New York club that faces the most pressure in 2016. But they are hardly alone. Here are the teams facing the most pressure for the coming season, non-New York division:
1. Cubs: They acted this offseason like Michael Corleone settling all family business. The Cardinals beat them out last season in the NL Central, so the Cubs signed away Jason Heyward and John Lackey. The Mets beat the Cubs in the NLCS, so Chicago won out for Ben Zobrist. The result is that a 97-win club screamed in the loudest way yet that now is the time to end the title drought that extends to 1908.
2. Dodgers: They project to have the majors’ largest payroll again. There is a lot of criticism, especially in Los Angeles, of the highest-paid, analytics-heavy front office for not getting Cole Hamels last July or keeping Zack Greinke this offseason. Like the Yankees, they also are trying to play the long game. But more than the Yankees, they are trying to win now. Despite all the money spent, they have not won a championship since Kirk Gibson limped around the bases in 1988.
3. Diamondbacks: They had training wheels last year when they signed a Cuban import (Yasmany Tomas) and made a much-hated (by the industry) deal in which they dealt well-regarded pitching prospect Touki Toussaint to Atlanta. But they really doubled down on today with an eleventh-hour ambush to sign Greinke for $206.5 million (which also cost them their first-round pick) and a deal for Shelby Miller in which they gave up, among others, the first pick in the 2015 draft, Dansby Swanson. Is this enough to overtake the Dodgers and Giants? If that doesn’t happen in the next two years, then what?
4. Red Sox: Two straight last-place finishes motivated the Red Sox to remove financial restrictions by signing David Price and finally to give up big prospects to get Craig Kimbrel. They are hoping their two big signings from last year — Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval — drop weight and add production. A go-for-it executive, Dave Dombrowski, was put in charge of baseball operations, so Boston is going for it.
5. Tigers: After dismissing Dombrowski and finishing last, Detroit could have gone into rebuild mode. Not under owner Mike Ilitch. So the Tigers signed nine-figure deals with Jordan Zimmermann and Justin Upton while also adding Francisco Rodriguez, Mark Lowe, Justin Wilson and Cameron Maybin. They will have a roughly $200 million payroll. Ilitch has become Steinbrenner — anything to win now.
Why D’backs bit on Mets flop Tyler Clippard
Durability was always going to be Tyler Clippard’s selling point in free agency — until it wasn’t.
Clippard was the rare reliever who was good and healthy year after year. From 2010 to 2015, he appeared in 12 more games than any other reliever and worked 52 more innings, and did it while compiling a 2.67 ERA and .580 OPS against.
But late last season, his effectiveness waned, perhaps due to a back ailment or simply the wear of being so dependable for so long. In his final 20 games as a Met (including eight in the postseason), Clippard had a 6.98 ERA, an .896 OPS against and permitted five homers in 19 1/3 innings.
The poor ending led to enough industry doubt that Clippard went unsigned until reaching a two-year, $12.25 million agreement with Arizona. Clippard, as extreme a flyball reliever as there is, was suddenly — alarmingly — being socked for homers late in the season. While with Washington and Oakland he played in home parks that statistically deflated homers, not so much with the moved-in fences at Citi Field or now in Arizona.
The Diamondbacks are all-in after ransacking their farm system and signing Greinke for more than $200 million. They used money saved by trading half of Aaron Hill’s contract to Milwaukee on Clippard to serve as a setup man and security blanket to Brad Ziegler, the most extreme groundball pitcher in the NL, though a guy with an 84-mph average fastball that does not inspire notions of championship closer. Clippard essentially fills the role that was held in Arizona by Addison Reed until Reed was traded to the Mets and eventually became the main setup man when Clippard struggled.