The Mets finally got rid of two players over the last several days that have had the writing on the wall for a while now in Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo. To be fair, the Mets did what any group of people with a lot invested in these players would do. They gave them each a chance to earn their spot on the roster. That's prudent. That's baseball smart. That's acceptable…..or not:
Given this bleak scenario, you sometimes got the feeling this winter that Luis Castillo and Perez were just being kept around for the inevitable sighs of relief that would come with the good riddances. Nobody took seriously these last-gasp auditions, particularly in the case of Perez. – Flip Bondy, New York Daily News
And the New York Post wasn't that much better as they ran article with the headline With Perez gone, Mets Fans Need New Scapegoats. (Full Disclosure: I recognize that this headline for the article is a lot worse than the actual article. The article actually doesn't make Mets fans out to be these desperate creatures that need to blame something, or need to have someone orchestrated into the position of blame, to satisfy our dark human needs).
So what did the Mets really accomplish with regards to Oliver and Luis this Spring?
They first made sure they gave them their course due. To give credit to what Bondy wrote, no one really thought either player was going to break Spring up north with the Mets. At the same time, Bondy is probably too cynical in his statement that the two players were only around to produce positive news for the Mets fan base at the end of Spring. That type of statement falls into the Carl Sagan's “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence Box”. To claim the Mets were in some form of Front Office conspiracy is a little far fetched (at least in this case). It really is possible that the Mets just wanted to make sure, one final time that they weren't going to eat the cost and regret it more. Also it is very plausible that part of the tone of camp Collins was showing is that everyone, no matter paycheck or media hatred, gets a fair shot at making the team. These claims are more likely than Sandy Alderson led conspiracy.
The Mets in turn this Spring fostered competition and hopefully the best players in the organization. This spring showed that especially for Oliver, the Mets want to head north with the best 25, and these two were not in the top 25 in camp.
Finally, New York papers, Mets fans do not need a scapegoat. With evidence on playing field, the players who don't perform will get ridiculed, but it isn't like we actually need a scapegoat in order to survive. This Mets fan base, although it won't sell papers to acknowledge this fact, is actually filled with logical, rational people, who aren't as brash and trashy as we are portrayed.
