Mets: I’m Done

So April 1st or thereabouts, on a whim, I watched a Mets baseball game for the first time in something like thirty-five years. I discovered, to my surprise, it was quite an enjoyable and relaxing evening. Plus, having watched and recently read Moneyball, I was digging on the stats and stuff.

Four-and-a-half months later, I’m done with the Mets.

Oh, yeah, there’s the Matt Harvey elbow injury thing. Probably be out all of next year. Then there’s the other pitcher getting the Tommy John surgery. Great.

But when I saw on ESPN today (refilling my liter thermos of water in the company break room) that the Mets traded John Buck and Marlon Byrd to the Pirates, I felt like somebody rabbit-punched me in the kidneys.

Marlon Byrd is my guy! For a whole slew of non-baseball and baseball-related reasons, Marlon was my man this season. And he delivered, having a stellar year, leading the Mets in home runs and OBP and ranking in the top six or seven in the league fielding-statistics-wise.

So they trade him! Ay caramba!

Mets: I’m done with you!

Then I listened to sportstalk on the way home.

OK, I realize Byrd is 35, which is ancient, gnarled and decrepit in baseball years. I realize that because of the great year he’s having, his $700,000 salary will go through the roof if they keep him. I realize, now, that he has to go to allow room on the roster for the up and coming stars of, er, the 2020 season, I guess.

So … I’ve written off this year. (Probably root for Pittsburg in the playoffs.)

But … hmmm … I wonder what chess moves the front office is going to pull – and how sophisticated or not those moves will be – in the off-season gearing up for 2014 …