Watching the Nationals and Mets play two games in person last week emphasized just how badly these teams messed up in 2018.
The National League played so down this year — the Dodgers underachieving, logjams in division races and for the wild card — that the inability of the Mets and Nationals to be factors of any kind defines wasted opportunity. It should trigger unflinching reassessment and, perhaps, sweeping change. The Mets, at minimum, are preparing to hire a new GM, and what that person will inherit is, at minimum, intriguing.
I have wondered, if playoff teams could pick their opponent from the NL East, would they prefer to face the Braves or Phillies rather than the Mets, who even with a diminished Noah Syndergaard could still send his talent plus Jacob deGrom and the peaking Zack Wheeler into any short series.