This is my first post since Spring Training began. It’s been that kind of year. The 2018 Mets started off red-hot and then went oh-for-June, which effectively ended their season. The fans grumbled, the press made fun, and the team essentially put a “For Sale” sign on the few productive veteran players that could still suit up.

But a funny thing happened after the calendar flipped to July. The Mets started to play better. Slowly, almost imperceptively at first, several players began to turn it around. There were steps back to be sure, like that nightmare in DC, but they started to gain a bit of traction. Fast forward to this past week, when the suddenly dangerous Mets knocked the Dodgers out of first place, probably spoiled the Phillies’ chances of reaching the post season, and are creeping up on the equally disappointing Nationals for third place in the NL East. Not exactly baseball like it oughta be, but certainly an intriguing development.

I’m starting to push 60, but I still have quite a bit of “Fan Boy” in me about the Mets. On the flip side, I have been rooting for them since 1971, leaving me little more than just a little cynical about their future. So, what kind of dialog ensues when Dan the Fan Boy and Dan the Old Cynic join the same Mets chat room in some corner of my brain?

Fanboy: The Mets will let David Wright and Jose Reyes man the left side of the infield one more game together before the end of the season, and then hold a very nice retirement press conference for them early in the offseason.

Old Cynic: No chance. David Wright will continue to attempt his “one last try.” Jose will further tarnish his legacy by telling his agents he’s open to a minor league deal. Don’t count out the Mets taking him up on that offer.

Fanboy: Amed Rosario and Jeff McNeil will combine to be the best 1-2 top of the batting order since the days of Dykstra and Backman. Defensively, they are the best keystone combo since Rey-O and Fonzie.

Old Cynic: It been a nice half a year for both players, but I need to see a few more good months of out McNeil in 2019 before I anoint him as the starting second baseman. Rosario alternated between looking really good and making some fundamentally unsound plays. Is that his youth, or the poor Mets player development system showing? The “best keystone combo since Rey-O and Fonzie” is more of an indictment against the Mets than an endorsement of Rosario and McNeil.

Fanboy: Zack Wheeler finally realized his potential. Between he, Jacob DeGrom and Noah Syndergaard, this is the best 1-2-3 rotation in baseball. And, if manager Mickey Callaway and pitching coach Dave Eiland can complete Steven Matz’ turnaround, we’ll have four aces.

Old Cynic: One (painful) word: Injuries.

Fanboy: Peter Alonso will supply the Mets with the kind of power they haven’t seen since Cespedes was in his prime. His righty bat will be bracketed by lefties Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto to form a left-right-left homegrown power trio in the middle of the order for the next few years. Put Todd Frazier in the 6-hole and they have a good lineup, one through six.

Old Cynic: It would have been nice to have seen Alonso get some at-bats in September. Plus, he hit about half of all those homeruns in the PCL, which is a notorious hitter’s league. Your 3-4-5-6 of the order will cool off the fans on humid nights with all that fanning. And, they’re just going to give up on Dom Smith? What happens to the beloved Wilmer? I can’t wait to hear about your plans for Jay Bruce.

Fanboy: The San Francisco Giants have Mark Melancon, an overpriced former closer that they don’t need. The Mets need a closer. The Giants have already cut bait with Andrew McCutchen and are losing Hunter Pence to Free Agency. They need outfield help. The Mets have Jay Bruce, who is making nearly as much as Melancon. The Mets don’t need Bruce anymore. The two teams should work out a trade for these contracts. We don’t need Melancon to close, except in emergencies.

Old Cynic: Yes, the Giants will need outfield help, but Bruce is absolute toast. They finally got rid of Pence, so now they’re going to sign up for two more years of poor production? They can just stash MM in the bullpen the way you want to, and go with Will Smith to close. By the way, who closes for the Mets in this scenario? Anthony Swarzak?

Fanboy: Drew Smith, Daniel Zamora, Gerson Bautista, Bobby Wahl, Tim Peterson, Eric Hanhold, Jamie Callahan, Tyler Bashlor, and Jacob Rhame can’t all be flops. Most of them had great minor league stats, and for the most part, they showed flashes in the bigs. They throw gas. If just two of ‘em come through…

Old Cynic: All of those names, except Wahl, are Sandy Alderson acquisitions. If we learned anything from his seven years as GM, it’s that he can’t build a bullpen to save his life. I’ll give you Jerry Blevins, but remember Jon Rauch, Frank Francisco, DJ Carrasco, Victor Black, and Jose Valverde? Don’t forget Swarzak. Plus, we got most of those guys in trades when we dumped veteran salaries. How much value did these pitchers really have to their former teams?

Fanboy: Juan Lagares really looked sharp in the 30 games he played. He’s in the last year of his contract, so he will be very motivated to stay on the field, bringing a gold glove and some speed to the everyday lineup.

Old Cynic: You’ve heard of the definition of insanity, right?

Fanboy: Callaway has already stated that he wants Seth Lugo in the rotation. With the other four spots taken, it’s between Lugo and Jason Vargas. The Mets will just have to swallow hard and release Vargas, giving his spot to Lugo.

Old Cynic: The Mets will never cut bait with Vargas, a signing they never should have made in the first place. Plus, doesn’t Lugo have a tear in a ligament on his pitching arm somewhere?

Fanboy: The Mets should sign Yasmani Grandal to a three-year deal. They can front-load it and offer him opt outs after the first two years.

Old Cynic: Yeah, a $50 million-dollar deal with $45M “frontloaded” in 2019. Seriously though, Grandal is just about the only full-time and effective catcher on the market. A lot of better-run and more willing to spend teams will be in on him. Unless we are willing to way overpay, I can’t see any reason why he would want to come here. Plus, if they’re giving Juan Lagares another go, why wouldn’t they give Travis d’Arnaud another chance as well?

Fanboy: The Phillies faded down the stretch, Washington is a mess, and Atlanta had a bunch of players have career years. The NL East can be wide open next year.

Old Cynic: Atlanta is going to be a dynasty; the Phillies have plenty of young, talented players and the Nats are going to full reload mode for Life After Harper. Get used to 4^th place.

So, that’s what’s going on inside the Met portion of my brain these days. How about you, are you a fan boy (or girl) or an old(ish) cynic about the Mets next year?

Does the Mets’ 2018 season seem eerily familiar to you? Are you reminded of the beginning of the Alderson era, when the Mets failed to properly rebuild in the name of “maybe we can contend” every year? For those who’ve since managed to forget, this summed up the Mets from 2011-2013, and only the unexpected brilliance of rookies Jacob deGrom and Jeurys Familia carried the team closer to .500 in 2014.

Personally, when I look at the 2018 squad, I see a lot of 2012. Let’s indulge in a wistful reminiscence of that knuckleball-filled season, and see if it provides any takeaways for the Mets’ current roster.

The cast of characters

The Cy Young candidate

With all hopes of contention gone before the end of July, 2012 Mets fans had one reason to tune in every five days: the brilliance of R.A. Dickey. Some historic feats early in the season (back-to-back one-hitters in June!) put him on the map as one of the best stories of the year, and he charged into August and September pursuing 20 wins and a Cy Young award.

When he had his A+ knuckleball he was a strikeout machine, and when he didn’t, Dickey got by on guts and determination. Whenever he was in trouble, he seemed to find a way to dot the corner with a surprise fastball, or induce a chopper for a double play. R.A. seemed to single-handedly will the team to victory on the days he started; rarely has a Mets pitcher fielded his position with more gusto or run harder to first base than the 37-year-old journeyman with the thick beard.

Of course, all those wins weren’t really single-handed. The team still had to score a few runs, catch some deep fly balls, and close the door in the 8th and 9th. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it, Jacob deGrom?

The blossoming #2 starter

Jon Niese had teased the Mets for years with various combinations of a nasty cutter, a nasty curve, and elite velocity for a lefty starter. In 2012, he improved his control and went on his first sustained run of excellence.

We can see some parallels in the Mets tenure of Zack Wheeler, though Zack’s 2018 turnaround has been far more dramatic.

The young catcher playing himself into a back-up role

Josh Thole and Kevin Plawecki were both supposed to hit for high enough averages to make up for their mediocre arms. Nope.

The slugging first baseman with contact issues

Back in 2012, most teams still valued a guy who could hit 30 homers and not do much else. Ike Davis was viewed as a probable cornerstone of the Mets’ lineup, despite his whiff rate. Now, in 2018, with such players often available in the free agent bargain bin, poor Peter Alonso can’t even get a call-up.

(In case this is news to anyone, Alonso struck out 77 times in 65 games for Las Vegas.)

The contact-hitting second baseman

It’s still early for Jeff McNeil, but he shows all the signs of becoming a Mets-era Daniel Murphy: great contact ability, occasional pop, few walks, not exactly a natural at second base. Hopefully McNeil can avoid the injury bug that bit the Mets’ last Murphy clone, T.J. Rivera.

The really, really young shortstop

In 2010, Ruben Tejada blew our minds by showing himself to be a capable MLB shortstop at the age of 20. Despite his lack of exceptional tools, he showed enough quickness, contact ability, and intelligence both in the field and at the plate, to raise hopes very high indeed. In 2012, Ruben hit .320 into mid-August while rating as an average defender at short. Terry Collins named him as the team’s cornerstone player to build around heading into the future.

From there it was all down hill.

Amed Rosario likewise impressed onlookers at an early age, though in a very different way, flashing tools in AAA rather than poise in MLB. Handed the Mets’ starting shortstop job at age 22, Rosario is still viewed by some as a future cornerstone, but his lackluster results are beginning to dim those hopes.

The future middle of the order hitter, or maybe not

Lucas Duda absolutely destroyed the minors in 2010 and 2011, but his early days in MLB were mixed. Showing the quickest bat and most natural power on the team, Duda alternated between great at bats and terrible ones. When hot, he was very selective, drawing walks and murdering the pitches he got to hit. When cold, he’d consistently wave through anything sinking below the knees, with little ability to read change-ups and breaking balls. He was also toast against lefties.

Michael Conforto has been much the same so far in his major league career, but with more prolonged slumps and more prolonged streaks. With a torrid first half of 2017, Conforto had everyone dreaming of a perennial All-Star hitter, but that hitter hasn’t shown himself once in 2018.

The toolsy outfielder on the rise

The 2012 Mets featured an athletic outfielder who had recently put together a very impressive minor league season, and instantly showed a decent combination of pop and patience in the majors. His name was Kirk Nieuwenhuis, and scouts were torn on whether he’d be a future regular or future fringe player.

Brandon Nimmo entered 2018 in much the same position. Like Kirk, he got off to a good start. Unlike Kirk, he’s kept it up. Look out, though. That whiff rate that proved to be Nieuwenhuis’s undoing? Nimmo’s is nearly identical.

The part-time masher

Scott Hairston was the 2012 Mets’ second-best hitter after David Wright. Scott never provided enough consistency or defensive value to be a regular, but he could certainly hit rockets when he was on.

While Hairston was a two-year free agent, his modern counterpart, Wilmer Flores, is one of the longest-tenured Mets and a fan favorite.

The giant pile of wasted money

Johan Santana gave the Mets one great season and a few good ones before his body betrayed him. Jason Bay fell apart very quickly after donning the orange and blue. In 2012, the pair contributed a combined -0.9 WAR for $40M.

Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce have provided -0.1 WAR for their $40M salary in 2018.

2012’s legacy

After 2012, the Mets continued to sputter along until everything converged late in 2015. Of the 2012 players mentioned above, only Murphy and Duda were regulars, with Tejada and Niese useful in part-time roles. Dickey was traded for a serviceable catcher and a hard-throwing kid who took off in the Mets’ system. Santana and Bay were gone, with Nieuwenhuis a 25th man, on and off the roster.

Will history repeat itself?

Can you imagine this Mets team reaching the 2021 World Series?

• A red-hot Jeff McNeil, coming off a merely decent season, anchoring the playoff lineup from the #3 spot with lots of tough at bats and surprising pop.

• Michael Conforto batting 5th against righties, with enough easy whiffs to frustrate, but enough walks and homers to be useful.

• Amed Rosario as a part-time shortstop, allowing the Mets to switch and pinch-hit for another mediocre option at the position.

• Zack Wheeler bumped from the rotation due to health and consistency issues, but contributing out of the bullpen.

• Nimmo subbing in to hit the occasional triple or make the occasional diving catch.

• Bruce and Cespedes a distant memory.

• Some emerging ace and catcher stepping into the spotlight after being acquired for deGrom in 2018.

That team is still missing most of the key components that would make it a winner. However, way back in 2012, we didn’t see deGrom, Familia, and Cespedes on the horizon either.

Now, if only we had a young Matt Harvey bursting onto the scene and a David Wright still playing like a star when healthy…