The New York Mets cleaned house because they had all kinds of clubhouse personality clashes last season, and there were even reports of shouting matches between the likes of shortstop Francisco Lindor and now-former second baseman Jeff McNeil.
The idea going forward was to bring in new players with good clubhouse personalities who would create a positive chemistry, not to mention the run prevention harped on by Mets GM David Stearns, to produce winning on the field.
Or maybe not. Jayson Stark of The Athletic did a piece on the best and worst subtractions of the offseason, and one of the names that popped up was new Mets second baseman Marcus Semien.
Why? According to Stark and several executives he quoted, Semien’s personality conflict with Texas Rangers shortstop Marcus Semien was well-known among baseball insiders. This sort of thing would be all over the back pages in New York, but at this point it’s obviously not somethingmany Mets fans know a lot about.
“I mean, you could probably blame both of them,” said an AL exec Stark quoted in the piece. “But whatever it was, you have to buy into the team first and foremost. I don’t give a (hoot) how good you are. And if you’re not willing to do that, then you’re going to be gone.”
And gone he was—Semien, that is. The Mets traded popular outfielder Brandon Nimmo to get him, and now Semien will be playing next to Lindor, which has to make Mets fans a little queasy.
“Look, I respect him as a player,” said another exec of Semien. “He’s durable, and he’s a pro, and all that. But this deal is the Rangers saying they needed to get him out of there. So clearly, they chose Simeon over Seager as the guy who had to go. It had clearly been an issue for a few years. Something needed to give. And it was him.”
Semien is a good player who brings sound defense and some power to the table. But he’s also 36, and part of the reason the Mets acquired him is that he’s on a shorter deal than Nimmo, albeit with a larger AAV.
The Mets had several other players turn up on Stark’s subtraction list, including new closer Devin Williams, infielder Bo Bichette, pitcher Freddy Peralta and center fielder Luis Robert Jr. This isn’t exactly comforting, either, although it’s probably true that nearly every prominent player comes with an expiration date in their current clubhouse.
For the Mets, though, this is a real red flag, largely because manager Carlos Mendoza apparently can’t run a clubhouse effectively—or at least he couldn’t last season. He’s supposed to have his finger on the proverbial pulse to keep hard feelings and rancor under control, but the offseason housecleaning speaks volumes about his ability to do that.
As for Semien, his relationship with Lindor will now be under the microscope given that they’re going to be double-play partners when Lindor returns from his hamate bone fracture. It’s another installment of “As the Mets Turn,” and it will be interesting to see if it affects the team’s play on the field as badly as it did in the second half of last season.